House of the Dragon season 3 is finally out, but fans had to wait two years for it.
According to showrunner Ryan Condal, there’s a simple reason the HBO fantasy series can’t return every year. Speaking at a recent HBO press conference, Condal addressed the two-year gap between Seasons 2 and 3 and explained why the lengthy wait is unavoidable.
“I get [it],” Condal said per Page Six, acknowledging viewers’ “frustration” over the delay. But according to the showrunner, the scale of the production leaves little room to speed things up.
“It just takes a long time to make,” he explained. Condal broke down the process, noting that “prep and shooting” alone require about a year, while the visual effects team then spends another “seven months [to] eight months” bringing the series’ dragons to life.
His message to impatient fans was straightforward: “Do the math.”
“It’s not possible to come out every year. I’m very sorry, but you guys decided to be fans of the show called ‘House of the Dragon,’” he added.
In comparison, Game of Thrones largely maintained an annual release schedule during its run from 2011 to 2019, aside from a two-year wait before its final season. While that series featured dragons and large-scale battles, House of the Dragon relies even more heavily on visual effects as it chronicles the bloody Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons.
Set more than a century before Game of Thrones, the series follows Rhaenyra Targaryen and Daemon Targaryen as they battle rival members of their own family for control of the Iron Throne.
2026-06-22 23:34:00
