‘House Of The Dragon’ Executive Producer Ryan Condal Says George RR Martin Is “Always With Us”

Going into its second season, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon, turns the heat up as the conflict between two strands of House Targaryean go to war. For the purposes of visual clues and social media savvy, the sides are represented by Team Black — the group led by Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) — and Team Green, the House Hightower-backed splinter nominally led by Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) even as her son, Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), sits the Iron Throne.

It is a conflict known in Westerosi history as the Dance of Dragons, and detailed to some extent in George RR Martin‘s fictional history of the Targaryens, Fire & Blood. But, as showrunner Ryan Condal noted at a recent press conference for the new season, the show proceeds without Martin’s direct involvement. “He’s always with us,” Condal said. “He’s aware of what’s going on. But now that we’re off to the races with the show, we’re operating on our own now – in a good way – but he always looms large in House of the Dragon.”

That distance is natural enough with Martin aiding the development of at least two other GoT spinoffs — possibly even a third with word that one of the older discard pitches has been revived. Then, of course, there is the issue of The Winds of Winter, the sixth book in his Song of Ice and Fire series that gave rise to Thrones and Dragon. Of course, Condal wouldn’t know anything about Martin’s pace on that novel as he orchestrates the Dragon shift from the peacetime of the first season to the war of Season 2.

“There are less nerves going into Season 2,” he said. “But we have to outdo ourselves.” He also teased two sequences in the upcoming set of episodes mark the biggest things he has done as a TV producer, to say nothing of the series itself.

“It’s traditional serialized storytelling,” he added. The executive producer also mentioned the time jumps of the debut year will not occur and that more traditional episode-ending cliffhangers will be in play. But one thing he would not admit: whether he supports Team Black or Team Green.

For their part, D’Arcy said Rhaenyra enters Season 2 “fatigued” from the careful manipulations the character’s position demands. Rhaenyra is also at odds with Daemon (Matt Smith), who is still torn up over the death of his brother, King Viserys (Paddy Considine). “Daemon can’t share his experience of losing his brother,” they said. “There’s a dislocation taking place.”

“Grief is the great catalyst of the season,” Smith added, suggesting the loss of the king will also reverberate within Team Green as it does at Dragonstone, Rhaenyra and Daemon’s seat in exile. “He feels unaccepted by her,” Smith said, returning to the way the grief is taking its toll on Team Black.

Meanwhile, the season will also continue to feature members of House Velaryon, whose fates are now intertwined with Rhaenyra’s choices in the year to come. Stephen Toussaint, who plays Lord Corlys Velaryon, spoke about the importance of featuring Black actors as members of a Westerosi noble house. ‘I’ve been contacted by people who are so pleased to see this representation in this world,” he said. Casting actors of African descent to play Corlys’s children led to some grumbling online (as it tends to do these days), but within the world of Westeros, the character’s chief concern is weathering the Dance of Dragons as adeptly as he navigates storms on the high seas. Oh, and maybe repairing the marriage he neglected to become known as “The Sea Snake.”

It remains to be seen what impact Corlys will have on House of the Dragon, though, as he, Rhaenyra, Daemon, and the rest of the team face almost insurmountable challenges to reclaim the Seven Kingdoms.

House of the Dragon returns Sunday on HBO.