Lucia Macari

HBO’s “House of the Dragon” returned to screens earlier this summer for its second season.

Two years after the release of its first season, HBO’s “House of the Dragon” Season 2 brought in record-breaking viewership for streaming platform Max. While the Season 2 premiere garnered 7.8 million viewers, the season finale brought about Max’s biggest streaming day, both in the U.S. and globally. According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the second season of “House of the Dragon” averaged 25 million cross-platform viewers.

After closing the first season on a cliffhanger, fans of the “Game of Thrones” prequel were eager to return to Westeros, even as the fictional world sat on the brink of a civil war. The actions of Team Green, composed of Aegon Targaryen’s supporters, in Season 1 were answered by the wrath of Team Black, made up of Rhaenyra Targaryen’s loyalists, in the Season 2 opener. “A Son for a Son,” the aptly named premiere episode, set an intense and emotional tone for the rest of the season. 

With the loss of innocent lives serving as a catalyst for war, audiences were left reeling with the losses of established characters and grasping at the complexity of war strategies every Sunday this summer. 

Though many fans felt that the season was lackluster and roughly pieced together, and there is certainly validity to that statement, the series has been renewed for a third season. A lot of fan discontent stems from a lack of action, and confusing plot lines going every which way. Overall, this season served the purpose of story-building, letting viewers in on the shifting dynamics and power plays.

With fans still skeptical about where the showrunners envision the series heading, the Season 2 finale episode, “The Queen Who Ever Was,” seemed to draw viewers back in and build excitement for the upcoming season. According to Variety, Ryan Condal, the series’ co-creator and showrunner, has announced that “House of the Dragon” will have two more seasons, with the show coming to a close at the end of its fourth season.

“I would just anticipate the cadence of the show, from a dramatic storytelling perspective, will continue to be the same from Season 2 on,” Condal told Variety.

While “House of the Dragon” most likely won’t be returning until 2026, fans of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” world can look forward to yet another HBO spin-off series, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.” The new series, to be released next year, follows Dunk and Egg through their journeys. On top of this, HBO looks to head up more “Game of Thrones” related series, many fans hoping that these projects include series on the Conquerors and even Robert’s Rebellion.