Game of Thrones' finale might be controversial, but there's no denying just how popular the Emmy-winning series was during its run on TV (and streaming with a HBO Max subscription). Fans have returned to Westeros with its spinoffs, the first of which was House of the Dragon. The show's about to return for its third season, and creator/showrunner Ryan Condal recently teased the "crazy" opening battle that'll kick things off.
House of the Dragon Season 3 is nearly here, and all-out war between the Targaryens is about to begin. There are tons of dragons in play, and fans are eager to see what Westerosi warfare looks like with the giant creatures. During a conversation with Deadline, Condal spoke about how hard it was bringing the Battle of the Gullet to life, and all the practical effects in play. As he put it:
So much of this [first] episode is practical. You’re in the water; there are multiple ships interacting that are real physical sets, and the fire and the dragons and all these things knitted together just seem like it’s all happening in the same place at the same time … Of course, up to the audience to decide what they think of the episode, but just the things that we had to engineer and figure out how to do just to make this episode of television — it was pretty damn crazy.
Is it June 21st yet? It sounds like Season 3 of HOTD is going to start off with a bang, with fans being brought back to the story with an epic and bloody medieval battle. And rather than bringing it to life primarily through visual effects, it seems like there was a ton of practical work done.
Shortly after its premiere, House of the Dragon joined the ranks of HBO shows that got the world talking. The show can be brutal at times, with even young children being targeted and killed during the conflict between the Targaryens. The Battle of the Gullet seems like it'll be thrilling, and I can't wait to see how it all shakes out. Later in the same interview, Ryan Condal spoke more about that forthcoming action sequence, offering:
It really is this amazing achievement of filmmaking on an artistic level, from all the crafts and crew that go into it … I think that’s going to be the surprise to everybody. We live in this era where really you can kind of do anything on film, and I think a lot of our brains just go, ‘Oh, that’s all just CG.'
This really makes the Season 3 premiere of HOTD sound epic, and luckily the wait is nearly over for its arrival. The trailer for Season 3 definitely teased that it was going to a bloody affair, and I can only imagine how much death will be at the Battle of the Gullet and beyond.
All will be revealed when House of the Dragon returns for Season 3 on June 21st as part of the 2026 TV schedule. And it sounds like we're going to be treated to be a wild and violent start to the season.
