House of the Dragon season 3 is set to arrive sometime in June, as revealed in the first trailer for the upcoming season.
Based on the trailer, both Team Black and Team Green are in a state of chaos. After attacking his brother King Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) at the end of season 2, the ruthless Aemond Targaryen now sits on the Iron Throne. His mother Alicent (Olivia Cooke) has seemingly seen reason — she knows her son is a monster, and plans to help Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and her group of dragonriders access the Red Keep to retake her rightful place on the throne.
Of course, no plan ever goes off without a hitch when it comes to Game of Thrones. The trailer features shots of bloody battles on land, air, and sea, along with a clip of Rhaenyra’s eldest son, Jacaerys, warning her that Alicent cannot be trusted.
As tense as the Targaryen family’s drama has gotten, tensions may be even higher behind the scenes. Initially, the relationship between Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal seemed positive. Condal even recreated Martin’s likeness in a Weirwood tree featured in the penultimate episode of season 2, and brought Martin to the set to show it off. But in a September 2024 blog post — which was meant to be the first in a six-post series critiquing the show — Martin revealed that he was disappointed in the way Condal chose to alter the source material for House of the Dragon. Specifically, Martin was unhappy with changes to the “Blood and Cheese” sequence in the season 2 premiere, along with Condal’s decision to leave Maelor Targaryen out of the show.
As explained in the since-deleted blog post, Maelor only plays a small part in the Fire & Blood novel upon which House of the Dragon is based, but his absence from the show will likely lead to a butterfly effect that could have significant consequences for the rest of the four-season series.
Martin says he didn’t delete the blog post himself — an HBO executive called Martin’s agent, upset with Martin’s comments. The agent then called Martin’s assistant, who quickly removed it.
“I would’ve put it back up, but then I would’ve looked like an idiot,” Martin said of the post (via The Hollywood Reporter). “And 80 percent of it was praise, but that’s not what people focused on.”
Later, during a Zoom call between Martin, Condal, and various HBO executives, Condal presented his plans for season 3. After listening to the showrunner’s plans, Martin reportedly declared, “This is not my story any longer.”
This isn’t the first time Martin has butted heads with HBO. He also clashed with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, and was no longer contributing to the show’s writing by the end of season 4.
“By Season 5 and 6, and certainly 7 and 8, I was pretty much out of the loop,” Martin told The New York Times. When asked why he’d been excluded, Martin replied, “I don’t know — you have to ask Dan and David.”
Interestingly, it was Martin himself who handpicked Condal to run House of the Dragon. Whether season 3 will change George’s mind remains to be seen, but keep an eye on the Game of Thrones creator’s blog this summer for the possibility of more infighting.
