George R.R. Martin addresses the time jumps in “House of the Dragon” while revealing that the series will need at least four seasons to complete the story…
In a perfect world, George R.R. Martin would have loved a few more episodes for the first season of “House of the Dragon” to spend more time with the characters rather than multiple time jumps that ultimately spanned decades.
The hugely popular “Game of Thrones” spinoff has already been renewed for season 2 and reviews for the show have almost all been positive but one minor complaint from fans has been the huge time jumps where several years are passed over between episodes. The most notable jump happened after episode 5 when the younger versions of Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower were aged up and the actors playing the characters changed.
In his personal blog, Martin addressed the time jumps that were essentially made necessary due to the vast story he told in his book “Fire and Blood” that detailed the events that eventually lead to the Dance of the Dragons — the bloody Targaryen civil war at the center of the show.
“I think [showrunner] Ryan [Condal] has handled the “jumps” very well, and I love love love both the younger Alicent and Rhaenyra and the adult versions, and the actresses who play them. (Truth be told, we have an incredible cast, and I love all of them),” Martin wrote. “Do I wish we’d had more time to explore the relationship between Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin, the marriage of Daemon and Laena and their time in Pentos, the birth of various and sundry children (and YES, Alicent gave Viserys four children, three sons and a daughter, their youngest son Daeron is down in Oldtown, we just did not have the time to work him in this season), and everything else we had to skip? Sure.
“But there are only so many minutes in an episode (more on HBO than on the network shows I once wrote for), and only so many episodes in a season. Fewer and fewer as time goes by, it seems.”
One thing to note there is that Martin confirmed Alicent Hightower has another son we haven’t met yet — Daeron Targaryen, who is the youngest child she shared with King Viserys. In the books, Daeron plays an important role in the Dance of the Dragons but it appears we’ll have to wait until season 2 to meet him.
The time jumps ultimately became necessary to get to the main part of the story, which is the battle for the Iron Throne as the Targaryen family is thrown into a bitter civil war.
That said, Martin believes that based on a 10-episode order per season with his version of the Dance of the Dragons lasting for approximately two years, he already has an idea about how long “House of the Dragon” will last.
“It is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish,” Martin revealed.
It seems highly likely that Martin will get his wish or perhaps HBO might even give the show even more time considering the massive ratings that “House of the Dragon” has produced through the first eight episodes.
Of course, “Game of Thrones” went on for eight total seasons before that show ended but it appears “House of the Dragon” won’t need quite as much time.
As of now, there’s only two episodes remaining in “House of the Dragon” season 1 with production on season 2 expected to start in early 2023.
