Watch House Of The Dragon Season 1 Episode 3
House of the Dragon received a straight-to-series order in October 2019, with casting beginning in July 2020 and principal photography starting in April 2021 in the United Kingdom. The series premiered on August 21, 2022, with the first season consisting of ten episodes. Five days after its premiere, the series was renewed for a second season. Sapochnik departed as showrunner after the first season, leaving Condal to serve as the sole showrunner for the second season.
Watch House of the Dragon Season 1 Episode 3
Inspiration for the series came from English medieval history and The Anarchy, a war of succession between the Henry I of England's nephew Stephen Of Blois and the King's only surviving child, Empress Matilda, who had fled to Normandy in the 12th century.[27][28][29] In January 2020, Casey Bloys, HBO's President of Programming, stated that writing had begun.[30] Writers for the show include Condal and Sara Hess, who previously wrote for Deadwood and Orange Is the New Black.[31] Martin was also involved in the pre-production, providing input on storylines and reviewed scripts and rough cuts.[32] On August 26, 2022, less than a week after its premiere, the series was renewed for a second season.[33] On August 31, Miguel Sapochnik stepped down as director and co-showrunner for the second season, but remained an executive producer. Sapochnik stated, "It was incredibly tough to decide to move on, but I know that it is the right choice for me, personally and professionally."[34] Alan Taylor, who directed Game of Thrones episodes, will join in season two and serve as an executive producer and direct.[35] Following the second season renewal, Bloys stated that the second season is expected to premiere in 2024.[36] Hess told Variety in late December 2022 that most of the season 2 had been written and will include a revenge plot against Alicent following the events of the first season finale.[37] The second season will consist of eight episodes.[38]
It was announced in September 2022 that Ramin Djawadi would compose the series score.[78]Djawadi composed the music for all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, which garnered him three Grammy Awards nominations and two Emmy Awards wins.[79][78] Djawadi and the showrunners opted to retain the original theme song, "Game of Thrones Theme", for House of the Dragon. The song debuted in the opening credits of the second episode.[80] In an interview with The A.V. Club, Djawadi stated that the original theme song was used to "tie the shows together".[81] For the first season, Djawadi, along with Condal and Sapochnik, watched each episode and made notes on when the music should occur and what mood the music should set.[82] Character motifs from Game of Thrones are also featured in House of the Dragon, including the Dragon theme "Dracarys".[83]
The production budget of the first season of House of the Dragon was nearly $200 million, which equates to under $20 million per episode.[88] In comparison, its parent series, Game of Thrones, cost around $100 million per season, beginning with nearly $6 million per episode from seasons one to five, around $10 million for every episode in seasons six and seven, and up to $15 million each episode in its eighth and final season, earning $285 million in profits per episode over its eight seasons.[89][90] According to Deadline Hollywood, the marketing budget was over $100 million, comparable to the budget for a blockbuster theatrical film.[91]
House of the Dragon premiered on August 21, 2022.[92] It is HBO's first new series to stream in 4K, Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos on its streaming platform HBO Max.[93] The first episode was released for free on YouTube on September 2, 2022.[94] The first-season finale was leaked online the week before the actual air date, with the full episode appearing on torrent sites.[95] According to HBO, the leak came from a Europe, the Middle East and Africa partner and it will "aggressively" monitor for additional leaks.[96]
Despite the praise, the show's first season did receive criticism for the depiction of violence, pacing and cinematography. Reviewing the early episodes, Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly said the series leaned too much on grand imagery and lacked the breakout supporting characters that Game of Thrones had.[118][119] Before the premiere, Martin stated that the series is similar to a Shakespearean tragedy with each character being morally grey with no "character everybody's going to love".[120] The Guardian stated the "dullness" of the characters makes the series more of a period drama than an action-adventure fantasy.[121] The Los Angeles Times and The New York Times cited the constant actor changes as a reason for the lack of emotional attachment to characters.[122][123] The graphic violence in the season premiere with a failed caesarean section was criticized for being excessive and, according to USA Today, "exploitive and in poor taste".[124][125][126] The time jumps throughout the first season were also noted for being jarring and causing confusion,[127][128] while George R. R. Martin defended them as being "handled very well".[129][130] In addition, the dark cinematography in Episode 7 was a point of criticism from both critics and fans alike.[131][132] HBO responded that the dimmed lighting in those scenes was an "intentional creative decision".[133] Game of Thrones faced similar criticism regarding the lighting of scenes in Season 8, with one of the show's cinematographers stating it was a "deliberate choice".[134][135]
According to Nielsen, the episode had a viewership of 327 million minutes or an estimated 5.03 million viewers on HBO Max in the U.S. during its first day.[140][b] It later estimated that the episode was watched by 10.6 million viewers on HBO Max in the first four days, with the number increasing to 14.5 million when including the viewership on the main HBO channel.[141] Samba TV meanwhile stated that 4.8 million U.S. households streamed the episode in the first four days.[142]
Financially, the budget for The Rings of Power is almost $450 million more than House of the Dragon.[88] Both series fared successfully in the ratings.[162] According to Nielsen and first-party data, The Rings of Power's first two episodes had more than 1.25 billion minutes of streaming minutes after three days of availability. In comparison, a few hours after the episode two premiere of House of the Dragon, the show had reached more than 1.06 billion minutes of streaming minutes.[c][141][163] Following the season finale for House of the Dragon, weekly streaming viewership passed 1 billion viewing minutes for the first time.[163] According to Nielsen data, The Rings of Power has a higher percentage of older viewers, with more than 70% of viewers being over the age of 35.[164] In any given week, The Rings of Power tended to have more streams than House of the Dragon given that the viewership of House of the Dragon was split between those watching online and those watching on HBO channel while that of The Rings of Power was online only. However, following both series debuts, streaming viewership for The Rings of Power decreased over the first season, while House of the Dragon viewership increased. The viewership of individual episodes of House of the Dragon also tended to increase over a number of weeks after the episodes became available while that of The Rings of Power dropped sharply after the first two weeks.[165] Despite the age gap in viewership, commentators have stated one of the reasons both shows did well was the consistent release schedule that helped create social-media buzz.[166][167] Both shows have highlighted the "streaming wars" between both Amazon and HBO and the entertainment industry as a whole.[168][169][170]
All eight seasons of Game of Thrones are available to stream on HBO Max. Alternatively, you can buy seasons (or episodes) on Amazon. Although it isn't necessary, it may be worth rewatching the best episodes of Game of Thrones as a primer.
House of the Dragon is available to watch on the HBO channel and HBO Max. For those watching internationally, House of the Dragon will premiere in the UK on Sky Atlantic, with the episode streaming live at the same time as the premiere in the US.
It will soon be time to watch House of the Dragon episode 3 online. The Game of Thrones prequel is already a big hit for HBO, which has already renewed it for a second season. House of the Dragon will face a new challenge after the premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, but maybe there's room for two fantasy epics in our queues.
While Canadians don't have access to HBO or HBO Max, they're probably going to be able to watch House of the Dragon episode 2 regardless. Crave (opens in new tab), the usual source for HBO shows in Canada, has the rights.
Since Brits also don't get HBO or HBO Max, they will watch House of the Dragon episode 3 on Sky Atlantic and NOW. It will air Monday, Sept. 5 concurrently at 2 a.m. BST and again at the more reasonable time of 9 p.m. BST.
King Viserys I's death sets off a struggle for succession between his daughter from his first marriage, Princess Rhaenyra, and his son from his second marriage, Aegon II. Princess Shireen Baratheon recounted this story in a fifth-season episode of Game of Thrones.
Starting in Episode 3 of House of the Dragon, Emma will also play Rhaenyra. According to IMDb, Emma plays the Targaryen princess from the third episode on. But IMDb also shows that Milly is still part of the season. Still, the plan has always been for House of the Dragon Season 1 to span decades to help tell a bigger story of the family.
James is Screen Rant's Deputy Features Lead Editor, having started out as a writer for the site back in 2019. A Sports Journalism graduate, James quickly realized that supporting Sunderland AFC was painful enough without writing about it, and so decided to talk a load of rubbish about movies and TV instead. Formerly the TV editor at WhatCulture, he has a particular love of Star Wars (The Last Jedi was great), Game of Thrones (season 8 was good), and Harry Potter (J.K. Rowling...never mind) - y'know, all that really niche, nerdy stuff. Spending most of his days editing articles about or writing on movies and shows, James likes to really get away from work and unwind by, er, watching movies and shows. He's fuelled by pint-sized cups of tea, peanut butter, more tea, and a quiet, constant anger (like the Hulk, only not green, or strong, or big). 041b061a72