Even with the heightened expectations, coming off the record-breaking success of “Game of Thrones,” you have to believe “House of the Dragon” exceeded HBO’s lofty goals during its first season. Well, according to a new report, that is definitely the case, as the network is not only prepping work on Season 2 but is already looking ahead to Season 3 and possibly Season 4. 
According to Deadline, as HBO looks to begin production on Season 2 of “House of the Dragon,” the number of episodes is shortening from its original order. That doesn’t sound like a move to make for a show that is doing really well. However, apparently, the shortened season is a story-driven decision as the producers look ahead to Seasons 3 and 4.
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The report claims that the success of Season 1 is giving HBO so much confidence that the network is considering giving a premature green light for Season 3 of “House of the Dragon” without production even beginning on Season 2. Because of this, showrunner Ryan Condal is taking a step back from the day-to-day operations of Season 2 to start planning the long-term arc of the series as it looks to last at least four seasons. This means, with Condal looking ahead to Season 3 and possibly already Season 4, the structure for Season 2 has changed, leading to the reduced number of episodes. 
All that to say, just because there are fewer episodes, that doesn’t mean HBO has less confidence than it did before. Clearly, this is proof that producers of “House of the Dragon” are trying to learn from the mistakes of ‘Thrones’ and plan the entire run of the series so that there aren’t the same issues that plagued the pacing of the original series. 
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You probably remember that the final two seasons of “Game of Thrones” feature a greatly accelerated pace to the storytelling, as it was clear the showrunners wanted to get to the end of the story in two seasons when it probably should have taken maybe three or four. This led to fans losing confidence in the storytelling and actively signing petitions for HBO to somehow redo the final season of the show. That, obviously, wasn’t ever going to happen, but perhaps the network heard the fans’ complaints and is trying to take a more measured approach to ‘Dragon.’
Even with all of this planning towards the future, with production beginning on Season 2 relatively soon, it doesn’t look like we’ll see new “House of the Dragon” episodes before Summer 2024. That would mean there will be roughly two years between seasons, which is likely going to be the new normal for shows of this size. HBO definitely doesn’t want to rush things. This would also explain why the network is clearly trying to get another ‘Thrones’ spinoff going sooner rather than later. That way, you could offset the shows and have a new ‘Thrones’ franchise series debuting episodes on a yearly basis. 
Until we’re there, it looks like fans of the ‘Thrones’ franchise will have to wait until next summer to see more Westerosi drama.