House of the Dragon, theGame of Thronesprequel series, is set to debut on HBO on August 21. A new teaser has arrived, and this one has dragons (aka, the only three seconds I care about). Is that the dreaded Vhagar? Impossible to tell! But is A dragon, anyway. Are you going back to Westeros? I have to be honest, this teaser, just like thefirst one, leaves me a little cold. Prequels can be like that, because ultimately, we know where it’s all going. Sure, there are some new faces in the crowd—Houses Velaryon and Hightower didn’t feature inGOT, never mind the Targaryen bastard House Blackfyre, which has a role to play in the civil war brewing between Targaryen factions. This a chance to get to know some new people in Westeros, to see a different era of conflict, but do you CARE?
HBO is counting onDragonto be a marquee piece programming, hopefully a stalwart of the 2020s just asGOTwas for the 2010s. But beyond facing the challenge of a splintered television landscape with no real watercooler shows left—GOTwas the last one—Dragonmust also overcome the lingering bad taste of theGOTfinale. It helps thatDragonhas an all-new creative crew, with new writers and a new showrunner, Ryan Condal, thoughGOT资深米格尔Sapochnik回到直接veral episodes and act as co-showrunner. ButDragonis going to have to win people back, to convince us our investment won’t be chucked out the window the minute the creative team gets tired (oh to go back in time and INSIST Benioff & Weiss just hand the show over to someone who wasn’t burnt out). Dragons are cool, so people (me) might tune in just to check them out, but the true test of how badly the end ofGame of Thronesburned people will be how many people turn up to watchHouse of the Dragon.
