House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal has suggested that the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel is tonally similar to Succession, but with dragons… lots of dragons.
In the latest issue of SFX magazine via GamesRadar, Condal acknowledged the comparisons between House of the Dragon and Succession as he addressed fan expectations for the upcoming HBO series. He admitted it wouldn’t be too far from the truth to say that the Game of Thrones prequel is like “Succession with dragons” because those types of shows were actually used for inspiration in the writers room.
“I think that’s actually a great metaphor,” he said. “The things we referenced in the [writers’] room the most were The Crown and Succession, just as tonal analogs and as shows that we, the writers, were really enjoying and immersed in.”
When Succession premiered in 2018, much of the drama revolved around the members of the Roy family as they jockied for their place in their aging father’s media empire. These types of family sagas have been a fundamental part of many other TV series, including Game of Thrones, but Condal points out that House of the Dragon raises the tension from its flagship series by honing in on the dynamics of a singular family.
“The original Game of Thrones is really the War of the Roses, so it’s the Yorks and the Lancasters [played out] with the Starks and the Lannisters – two separate families that never liked each other in the first place going at it,” he explained. “This, however, is the Dance of the Dragons. It’s a civil war that happens within a singular family, which in a way makes it much more engrossing and tragic, because you see people who are blood relatives turning against each other and going to war.”
House of the Dragon is also expected to differ from George R.R. Martin’s original book, Fire & Blood, which tells the story of the Targaryen family in the guise of a history book. Condal and co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik recently told IGN that they want their show to feel like it interacts with Fire & Blood, rather than just telling the same stories onscreen.
“The fun of this show is that it plays as a bit of a companion piece to the history book,” Condal revealed. “It communicates with the history book. In a sense that, some things will line up. Other things will be told very differently. But the idea is that, in the end, the events are the same. It’s just the ‘why’ and ‘how’ they happened that changes as you see the actual history.”
House of the Dragon, which premieres on August 21, will flesh out the tales behind the Targaryen family, who ruled Westeros before the events of Game of Thrones. The first season is set 200 years in the past and will show the beginning of the end of the Targaryen reign, leading up to a civil war waged between family members – and the seeming death of dragons in the fantasy world.
Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.