‘House of the Dragon’ Showrunners Explain How the Prequel Series Is Different Than ‘Game of Thrones’
House of the Dragon will bring viewers back to the world of Westeros. The series is a prequel to Game of Thrones and focuses on the history of one of the world’s most famous families. While House of the Dragon will have some familiar names and places, the showrunners promise it will be different than Game of Thrones.
‘House of the Dragons’ is an upcoming prequel to ‘Game of Thrones’
House of the Dragon takes place 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones. It covers the civil war of House Targaryen as two entities battle for control of the Iron Throne. It leads up to the Targaryen war of succession, also known as Dance of the Dragons.
David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are not returning as the showrunners for this series and it is being led by Ryan J. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik. The cast includes Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Paddy Considine, and Rhys Ifans. Following the disappointing conclusion of Game of Thrones, many fans are excited to return to this world in this prequel series.
‘House of the Dragon’ showrunners explain how this series will be different
The trailer for House of the Dragon showcases many familiar settings from the original series including King’s Landing and the Iron Throne room. However, the trailers feature a more colorful version of Westeros. In an interview with Den of Geek, Condal and Sapochnik said that they specifically changed the tint so that viewers could differentiate between the two shows.
“This is one thing we changed from the outset,” Sapochnik explained. “We wanted to avoid having that tint that the original show had which differentiated where you were.”
Game of Thrones also used different colors for each location, with King’s Landing being more gold and brown while Winterfell was more white and gray. Sapochnik said they didn’t have to deal with this issue, meaning they could make King’s Landing a greater variety of colors.
“We don’t have that geographical problem,” Sapochnik added. “We wanted to do stuff [differently] in art direction and the costume design, and it was kind of all in-camera, and therefore it got a lot more colorful.”
Ryan J. Condal calls the series a ‘Greek tragedy’
Another way in which this prequel will differ from Game of Thrones is that it mainly focuses on one family. It is a more intimate story about a family divided, while Game of Thrones told several different stories involving hundreds of characters from different backgrounds.
“The original Game of Thrones started out very broad and wide-spanning,” Condal told Den of Geek. “You have the story of the Wall and across the Narrow Sea in the south, and then also people moved around a lot. It was a lot like an odyssey, and then at the end of the series, people came together. But it took seven or eight seasons for Jon and Daenerys to meet, or Tyrion and Jon to reunite, and Tyrion and Daenerys to meet for the first time. Whereas this show starts together under the same roof because it is the story of one family. It’s a Greek tragedy happening in slow-motion.”
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO on August 21.
