House of the Dragon (Game of Thrones prequel series) (2 Viewers)

[Sam Favate]

Haven't seen a thread for the new Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon. It premieres August 21 on HBO MAX.

‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel Series ‘House of the Dragon’ to Debut in August

HBO announced that the "Game of Thrones" prequel series "House of the Dragon" will premiere in August.

variety.com

BTW, the 8/21 release date means the show will be on at the same time as Amazon Prime's Lord of the Rings series, The Rings of Power, which premieres 9/2.

 

[Alex...]

 

[Sam Favate]

Full trailer.
Visually, it looks great, but I can’t say the tease of the story moved me.

 

[John_Bilbrey]

Pretty interested to see this. Although, instead of writing a prequel, I wish GRRM would finish ASOIAF so I can see how it was supposed to end. This has been dragging on forever.

 

[Tommy R]

Pretty interested to see this. Although, instead of writing a prequel, I wish GRRM would finish ASOIAF so I can see how it was supposed to end. This has been dragging on forever.

He seems very intent on doing anything other than finishing the original book series! https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-...-martin-game-of-thrones-mcu-b2128412.html?amp

 

[Sam Favate]

Wasn’t the last book more than 10 years ago?

 

[Malcolm R]

Yes. He'll drop dead before we get a new book.

 

[Tommy R]

Sorry, just got to post this link:

George R.R. Martin takes a break from writing to appear on stage at Hall H for House Of The Dragon

Roughly four years since we last saw the platinum blonde wigs of the house of Targaryen, HBO is ready to return to Westeros—and it’s leading with the dragons this time. As we all remember, waiting for ‌dragons to show up was a frequent fan joke in the first season of Game Of Thrones; well, none...

www.yahoo.com

I love the line in there “Taking a break from not finishing that final Song of Ice and Fire book…”, for one The Winds of Winter will be the 6th of 7 books, so not the final, but also, wouldn’t taking a break from not finishing it mean that he DID finally finish it? He’s been not finishing it for over a decade!

 

[Tino]

Shocked that there aren’t more posts in this thread. Premieres tomorrow and is getting great word of mouth. Are people not interested? I certainly am.

 

[Walter Kittel]

Shocked that there aren’t more posts in this thread. Premieres tomorrow and is getting great word of mouth. Are people not interested? I certainly am.

I've been anticipating the series since it was first announced. Just waiting for something beyond the trailers to discuss.

Certainly some questions in my mind about the series. We can be pretty confident that the production design and technical aspects will be top notch based on Game of Thrones (costuming, set decoration, art design, FX, etc.) For me, the writing and direction are more unknown quantities and will probably determine whether this is a good series or (hopefully) a great one.

- Walter.

 

[Jeff Cooper]

Waiting to see what the general word of mouth is on this one. I loved GoT to death, but had little to no interest in this one purely because it seemed like execs just arbitrarily decided "hey that GoT sure did well, how can we continue to milk this franchise" and just made something up.

 

[Tommy R]

I was kind of hit and miss when it came to GoT. I watched and generally enjoyed it, but there were definitely characters I was way less enthusiastic following the arcs of, and Dany was my least favorite. So a whole show of Danys? I think I’ll pass for now.

 

[Sam Favate]

I’m in. I think it has a lot of potential.

That said, the hype machine has been quieter than usual, and advance reviews have been lukewarm. I’d certainly like the word of mouth to be good.

 

[Joe Wong]

I think that, in general, as great as the first 6 seasons was for GoT, the rushed nature of the last 2 seasons (even if there were some amazing moments individually) soured a lot of people’s attitude towards the show.

So I think people are approaching with caution.

I believe it’s based on a prequel book that George R R Martin wrote so there is source material to work off, but I also agree that HBO is opportunistically leveraging the brand to its max. Hopefully it’s good enough to restore some of the goodwill that GoT’s first 6 seasons generated.

I will be watching, but I would have preferred going forward in time rather than backwards (as the Jon Snow series will do).

 

[Tino]

and advance reviews have been lukewarm.

Really? I’ve read nothing but raves.

85% at RT

House of the Dragon | Rotten Tomatoes

The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to popular HBO series "Game of Thrones." Based on George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood," "House of the Dragon" is set nearly 200 years before the events of "Game of Thrones," telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys I...

www.rottentomatoes.com

 

[Tino]

The review embargo was lifted Friday for the notable Game of Thrones prequel and its initial notices are largely positive, with critics calling the fantasy drama “a magical miracle” and a worthy successor to the original series, which became the most Emmy-winning drama of all time. Yet, there are also several mixed reviews, and at least one outright negative take that declared the prequel has “uniformly dull” characters.

‘House of the Dragon’ Reviews: Here’s What Critics Are Saying

The reviews are in for the 'Game of Thrones' prequel.

www.hollywoodreporter.com

 

[Sam Favate]

Really? I’ve read nothing but raves.

85% at RT

House of the Dragon | Rotten Tomatoes

The reign of House Targaryen begins with this prequel to popular HBO series "Game of Thrones." Based on George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood," "House of the Dragon" is set nearly 200 years before the events of "Game of Thrones," telling the story of the Targaryen civil war with King Viserys I...

www.rottentomatoes.com

I guess it was this one (the latest I'd read) that made me think so:

‘House of the Dragon’ Review: Domesticating ‘Game of Thrones’

HBO’s long-awaited prequel series has the swords and the dragon flame, the Hand and the Iron Throne. But something’s missing.

www.nytimes.com

 

[Sam Favate]

I thought the premiere was very good. Some of it was a bit too on-the-nose (the viciousness of Daemon), but it’s a good bit of political intrigue.

 

[Joe Wong]

Good first episode. Plenty of drama.

Spoiler

Similar to how GoT was largely inspired by the War of the Roses in British history, the scheming, ambitious uncle in HotD has a precedent in Richard III, and the King harboring a festering wound is likely influenced by Henry VIII (source: my wife, medieval history major).

Though I thought they could have left out the mention of a coming winter, and the threat from the north. Been there, done that. We know what happened.

I know it’s to help connect audiences to GoT, but it’s kind of like how the Peter Jackson Hobbit films added all these extraneous scenes to tie them to the Lord of the Rings films. There was no payoff to these extra scenes, because the future events had already been put on film (in the LOTR trilogy). It just made the Hobbit films bloated.

I’m guessing it’s just a cursory mention, but there’s no need, IMO, to make these type of connections (unless one hasn’t seen GoT).

 

[Walter Kittel]

Pretty solid first episode. We get introduced to (most?) of the major players and the political turmoil that will inform the story for season one. There were some references to content from GoT, including musical cues. I thought the first episode struck the right balance and didn't go overboard with said references. I agree with Joe that we don't need a lot of that in this series and hopefully the series will have a light touch when dealing with what we (the audience) already know.

I liked most of the casting choices and I am curious about hints at some of the relationships that the first episode teased. I particularly enjoyed Rhys Ifans' portrayal of Otto Hightower. For me, it was just the right amount of subtlety with a hint of his ambition. In addition to Ifans I thought that Emma D'arcy was solid as Princess Rhaenyra. She was visually striking and it was another case of a performer whom I felt hit the right note for the character. Matt Smith was fine, but I still tend to associate him with the Doctor. (But that's just me.)

There were dragons and there were tits. So, all good.

- Walter.