HBO drama director Francesca Orsi has revealed why Number of episodes of House of the Dragon Season 2 is lower than in Season 1.
Why has House of the Dragon season 2 had its episode count reduced?
In a recent interview, Orsi explained that the middle part of the second season “narratively kind of stagnated”, which led to a compression of the number of episodes.
“There were some questions about the narrative form of the second season. We developed it with Ryan Condal and (EP) Sara Hess and found that we kind of stalled narratively mid-season,” Orsi explained (via meeting). “If we were to compress the season, it just felt a lot more rigorous and immersive for our characters. And that also determined how we would start Season 3.”
Based on George RR Martin’s Fire & Blood, House of the Dragon chronicles the rise and fall of the Targaryens, the only dragon lord family to survive the fall of Valyria. It is set 200 years before the events of the award-winning Game of Thrones series adaptation, the final episode of which aired in 2019.
The first season was directed by Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Also in attendance were Rhys Ifans, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, Milly Alcock, Emily Carey, Graham McTavish, Ryan Corr, Jefferson Hall, David Horovitch, Matthew Needham, Bill Patterson, Gavin Spokes, Wil Johnson, John Macmillan and Savannah Steyn , and Theo Nate.