“Sticking the landing is the most difficult thing”: Ryan Condal discusses ending House of the Dragon

House of the Dragon, the Game of Thrones spin-off series, will not end anytime soon. However, showrunner Ryan Condal has already started considering the challenges of wrapping up the show. Speaking to RadioTimes.com ahead of the Season 2 release, Condal shared his thoughts and concerns about the series finale.

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Showrunner Ryan Condal discusses ending House of the Dragon

Credits: Ollie Upton/HBO

Condal admitted that while he isn’t planning the end yet, he’s aware that “sticking the landing is the most difficult thing” for a popular TV series. He explained that when a show reaches its final season, fans have developed their own ideas about how it should end. Condal stated:

“Because everybody by that point, many years on down the road, are going to have their own idea of where the show should and/or what it should be. And you can’t satisfy all of those very specific ideas. You can’t give them what they want. You have to give them the thing that they need. And that’s our challenge as adapters, and, you know, I’m willing to take it on – but yes, it is… that lurks in the back of my mind, for sure.”

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Working on the second season has given Condal clarity on where and when he wants to end the show. He stated:

“And look, as I always say, there’s a history that marches on for decades after this. So it’s not about ending the Targaryen history. It’s just finding the place to close the curtain on this particular time… We’re trying to find the satisfying television ending or the conclusion where we can leave everybody knowing that time marches on from here, but we’ve brought this dramatic story to a close. So, I think that’s become very clear as we’ve just gotten farther down the timeline. But I’m not ready to yet talk about how many episodes or seasons are left. But I think the nice thing is we know where we’re going, we have all the material that we need, because the book is written and hopefully we can bring this to a satisfying conclusion.”

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Condal discusses the challenges of Season 2

Condal also spoke about the challenge of raising the bar for the second season, especially after fans and critics’ positive reception of the first season. He said:

“Every season is its own challenge,” he said. “The first season, the challenge was making something that anybody would engage with and care about after the celestial event that was that original series. And how do you follow that? You don’t – you just try to make something that stands on its own two feet. Well, we did that – people showed up, they liked it. That’s great. Now we have to outdo ourselves and raise the bar, and they’re coming in with such high expectation. So I think from season to season, that’s the challenge.”

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