The second season of House of the Dragon wrapped up on Sunday, bringing the Game of Thrones prequel series to its halfway point. That’s right, series showrunner Ryan Condal has confirmed that House of the Dragon will likely end with season 4.

In a virtual press conference moderated by journalist Joanna Robinson (via THR), Condal was asked if House of the Dragon would run five seasons. “No, I think it’s four,” he said. The showrunner also said that season three will start shooting early next year. As with the second season, the third is also expected to consist of eight episodes. Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and tells the story of House Targaryen. You can check out a review of the second season from our own Alex Maidy right here.

The second season finale has come under fire from fans, who were annoyed that the episode came to an end seemingly before a massive battle was set to begin. Condal defended the move, citing resource management. “One of the challenges of making television at any scale [is] nobody has infinite time and resources,” Condal explained. “When you’re a showrunner, you’re always in the position of having to balance storytelling and the resources that you have available to tell that story. One of the things that came into play in season two is: What is the final destination of the series and where are we going? It was a combination of factors that led us to rebalance the season knowing now where we’re going. We wanted to rebalance the story in such a way that we had three great seasons of television [after season one] to round out and tell this story. When you’re trying to mount the show, which requires a tremendous amount of resources, construction, armor, costumes, visual effects … we are trying to give The Gullet — which is arguably the second most anticipated action event of Fire & Blood — trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves.“

Condal continued, “We are building to that event that will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling, and it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve we’ve pulled off. We just wanted to have the time and the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans in the way it’s deserved. We also wanted to build some anticipation toward it. So I apologize for the wait, but … with the team that we have together, we’re going to pull off a hell of a win with The Battle of the Gullet.“

The next Game of Thrones prequel series is already shooting, with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms expected to launch in late 2025, How do you feel about House of the Dragon coming to an end with season 4?

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