House of the Dragon Showrunner Says New Battle Scenes 'Outstrip Everything We Did in Season 1'

House of the Dragon showrunner likens the show’s shoot schedule with filming blockbuster movies, as Season 2 gets bigger than the first.

House of the Dragon Season 2 showrunner Ryan Condal teased the large-scale episodes they have prepared for fans in the highly-anticipated next installment to the acclaimed HBO drama. Prior to working on the Game of Thrones spinoff, Condal previously co-created and executive produced the sci-fi drama series Colony, which ran on-air for three seasons on the USA Network.

Speaking with Den of Geek, Condal promised Avengers-sized episodes in Season 2 which will feature the biggest battle sequences they’ve ever filmed for House of the Dragon. “We can fit two Avengers films inside of our shoot schedule,” Condal said. “The battles are episodes unto themselves. We have two of the largest sequences that we’ve ever filmed on House of the Dragon. Both of them outstrip anything that we did in Season 1. They are episodes within episodes.” Compared to the first installment, Season 2 is expected to introduce more dragons as the intense Targaryen civil war begins. These include Aegon II and Baela’s fan-favorite dragons Sunfyre and Moondancer, respectively.

The full trailer has just been released for the second season of House of the Dragon.

To further hype up how big the battle sequences are for Season 2, House of the Dragon stunt coordinator Rowley Irlam had previously likened them to the same level as the iconic fight sequences seen in memorable Game of Thrones episodes such “Hardhome” and “Battle of the Bastards.” “If I didn’t top those episodes, I’d still be very proud of what we’ve done,” he said. “But we haven’t given up, and the desire is always to go bigger and better — but to not repeat. We don’t want ‘Battle of the Bastards 2’ or ‘Hardhome 2’ or ‘Spoils of War 2.’ We’re always trying to find new sequences we can get our teeth into.”

House of the Dragon is created and executive produced by Condal and Martin. Season 1 ended with the death of King Viserys, which signaled the beginning of Rhaenyra and Aegon II’s fight for the Iron Throne. The first big casualty of the Targaryen civil war was Lucerys Velaryon, who gets killed by Aemond and his dragon Vhagar. The next season will see how the Black Council will ruthlessly respond to this tragedy. The series currently stars Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra, Matt Smith as Daemon, Eve Best as Rhaenys, Olivia Cooke as Alicent, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Ewan Mitchell as Prince Aemond, Tom Glynn-Carney as Prince Aegon II, and more.

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Prior to House of the Dragon’s return, HBO had already ordered its next Game of Thrones spinoff in the form of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, based on Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg fantasy novellas. Set a hundred years before the original, the series will be led by Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell, who have been cast for the respective roles of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg. The official logline reads, “it follows a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.”

House of the Dragon Season 2 debuts on June 16.