House of the Dragon‘s second season ended on the brink of a major battle from the Dance of the Dragons. That’s not exactly the conclusion fans wanted. They wanted to actually see that epic conflict. But HBO continues to promise viewers they will be glad they waited. Francesca Orsi, HBO’s Head of Drama Series and Films, told Deadline the Battle of the Gullet will be even better because they held back on filming it. If that’s not enough to get Targaryen bannermen excited, though, she also said the network is already considering renewing A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for two more seasons. And HBO is also still developing some other potential big budget spinoffs featuring the Seven Kingdom’s dragonriders.
The Battle of the Gullet from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood is coming. Eventually. Until it does HBO wants frustrated/disappointed viewers to believe the delay will ultimately be a good thing. “You know what, it was worth the wait,” Orsi told Deadline during The White Lotus season three premiere. “I was just on set [for season three] and saw all the elements and what was behind it,” she said. “I’m so glad we waited because it’s going to be better than ever, and I don’t think we had the time at that point to do what it is that we’ve achieved now this season.”
HBO changed the show’s second season from its originally planned ten episodes to eight. The Battle of the Gullet ended up on the wrong side of the divide. But whether or not Orsi is being wholly honest when she says the set for the battle is “just so massive, we needed the time to build it,” she’s certainly building up anticipation the show will now need to deliver on. But if any TV series can pull off a spectacle of this magnitude it’s House of the Dragon. The show’s well-discussed season two issues did not include its action sequences.
Of course, we have a long way to wait to see the Battle of the Gullet. Production on season three has just begun and it won’t premiere until spring 2026 at the earliest. We won’t be waiting nearly that long for the next Game of Thrones spinoff, though. The six-episode first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will debut later this year. It might not be long until we see both seasons two and three, either.
Orsi said, just like George R.R. Martin, HBO is very happy with the lower budget series. It’s already discussing not only renewing it for two more seasons (Martin has written three Dunk & Egg novellas), but filming them back-to-back. Considering one of its two stars is very young that will help with the problem of actual humans aging in ways fictional characters don’t have to.
But while Orsi described production of A Knight of the Seven Kingdom as “intimate,” she said other potential shows in Westeros would be similar in both scope and budget to Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. “We have other spinoffs that we’re working on right now, one of which — which I won’t get into — is very promising,” said Orsi. She also added that show is also about House Targaryen. (Our bet is she means Aegon’s Conquest.) “There’s a number of other spinoffs, we can’t really guarantee what’s going to go forward, but we are very big budget on the other ones.”
No matter which projects in development ultimately make it to air we just have one request. Please don’t make season-ending teases of major battles the norm. Even if the Battle of the Gullet ends up being worth the wait we’d prefer not to.