Why is House of the Dragon Season 2 so short?

The Dance will continue in House of the Dragon Season 2, the highly-anticipated next chapter of the Game of Thrones prequel – so why is it shorter than the first season?

House of the Dragon has to be one of TV’s greatest success stories of 2022. It defied the odds laid out by the disastrous response to the final season of Game of Thrones, an extinction-level event for its place in pop culture.

The prequel, taking place 172 years before the birth of the Mad Queen, revolves around the Dance of the Dragons, an infamous civil war that brought the Targaryen dynasty to its knees. With that shocking death in the Season 1 finale, the Dance officially began.

However, don’t get too excited for another 10 episodes, because House of the Dragon Season 2 is set be a bit shorter – but why?

House of the Dragon Season 2 will only have eight episodes

House of the Dragon Season 2 will be short in comparison to its inaugural season, coming with just eight episodes compared to the expected 10.

Clare Kilner, a director on the show, recently spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the upcoming season, which has “eight wonderful episodes with so much happening in every episode… and we have trouble, at times, bringing them down to one hour.”

So, there’s your answer: while there’ll be less episodes, don’t expect much in the way of filler, as each week will come with major plot advancements. “[Showrunner Ryan Condal’s] decision was to give it a good opening and a good ending, and they’re jam-packed with emotional and visually exciting events,” Kilner said.

HBO

While other productions have paused due to the writers’ and actors’ strikes, House of the Dragon has still been shooting; the scripts were finished before the strikes began, and actors are allowed to keep filming thanks to their local union rules.

As for how the season will begin, Condal earlier said it’ll “pick up where we left off… now we get to fall into the more traditional rhythms of storytelling and Game of Thrones,” as per Deadline.

“We’ve always talked about this particular tale, George [R.R. Martin] has too, of being a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy. This series is very much about a house tearing itself apart from within. Now that all those pieces have been set on the board, I’m really excited to tell the next chapter, to see what happens now that Viserys is gone and no longer keeping a lid on things.”

You can find out what we know about House of the Dragon Season 2 here and check out our other Game of Thrones coverage here.