HBO was going to cancel House of the Dragon before Ryan Condal picked it up

The second season of House of the Dragon is almost finished as filming comes to an end at the UK’s Leavesden Studios. Post-production is progressing rapidly, and new information about the story, characters, and location is being released on a daily basis. However, there was a time when the Game of Thrones prequel was about to be scrapped, until Ryan Condal and George R. R. Martin saved it.

George R.R. Martin was unhappy with how HBO was initially handling the spinoffs

In an interview with IndieWire, the House of the Dragon showrunner revealed, “He was unhappy with how development was going. They were trying to figure it all out.

But there was one thing in particular that George really wanted to do, which was tell the story of ‘The Dance of the Dragons,’ the great Targaryen Civil War, the most bloody civil war ever fought, as Targaryen family is fighting family for the war for the throne. It’s where the dragons fight and kill each other. And they end up dying off as a result afterwards. It’s all horrible.”

House of the Dragon would’ve been canceled

Condal further said that the show might’ve been scrapped if Martin hadn’t called him, “That was the spinoff that was the most important to him and he had been unhappy with how development had gone on it. HBO was going to shelve it and he didn’t want them to do that. He wanted me to take another shot at it.”

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