House Of The Dragon cancellation left showrunner terrified

House of the Dragon near-cancellation had left the series showrunner feeling terrified.

For better or worse and no matter what some may think of its final season, Game of Thrones from HBO, an adaptation of the George R.R. Martin novels, is one of the most popular TV series of all time.

So when its prequel spin-off, House of the Dragon arrived with its debut season in August 2022, it had to contend with the extremely high bar set by its predecessor.

During its first episode, it garnered nearly 10 million viewers across the HBO platforms, and that’s not even taking into account other regions such as Sky in the UK. What’s more, on Rotten Tomatoes, it earned scores of 93% and 83% from critics and fans, respectively.

However, as reported by Screen Rant (via IndieWire), House of Dragon was nearly cancelled and as a result, we wouldn't be talking about its success today, let alone future seasons.

House of Dragon showrunner, Ryan Condal, told IndieWire how he and George R.R. Martin had to save the show from being cancelled by HBO.

“That was the spinoff that was the most important to him and he had been unhappy with how development had gone on it,” said Condal. “HBO was going to shelve it and he didn’t want them to do that. He wanted me to take another shot at it.”

If you thought House of Dragon being cancelled was an impossibility, unfortunately, it’s not outside the realm of possibility. As we reported in December 2021, HBO cancelled another Game of Thrones prequel, despite the pilot episode costing a mind-boggling $30 million.

As for the next season, when is the House of Dragon season two release date? Sadly, we’re going to have to be very patient, because it won’t be returning into 2024, leaving a two-year gap from its debut season.