House of the Dragon is getting a lot more dragons in its second season, according to showrunner Ryan Condal. During a Tuesday dinner prices attended by several of the show’s cast members and series author George RR Martin himself, Condal confirmed that season 2 of the show will add five new dragons to the lineup already on the show.
While Condal didn’t elaborate much on the identities or riders of these five dragons, his comment may well hint at a plotline from Martin’s novels that could be relevant in Season 2. House of the Dragon has adapted and elaborated on the history recorded in Martin’s Game of Thrones prehistory book Fire and blood, detailing some of the backstory of the Tarargyen dynasty. The new dragons suggest that Condal may be targeting some specific storylines from that book.
[Ed. note: This story contains possible spoilers for season 2 of House of the Dragon and definite spoilers for Fire & Blood.]
While there are certainly many possibilities that Condal could be talking about five dragons, especially if they aren’t all battling dragons, it’s very likely that he’s talking about dragons with key roles in the book. The ones most important in the story are the wild dragons.
In fire and blood, Dragonstone, the ancestral island of House Targaryen, features three wild dragons that roam the area, ready to pounce on and eat anything unlucky enough to come their way. These three dragons are Sheepstealer, Gray Ghost and the Cannibal – so named because it has eaten so many other dragons, a rare thing for their kind.
While it wouldn’t be fair to the show to reveal how integral these creatures are to the story, what happens to them, or who does or doesn’t ride them, it’s worth noting that they are incredibly important to the Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire book series. If Condal plans to include them in the show, it would suggest that he continue with the Targaryen Civil War storyline, bringing us closer to the aerial combat and open warfare known as the Dance of Dragons. The show’s first season shows only a short portion of the book, leaving the greatest battles of the war for subsequent seasons.
Other dragons that Condal may be referring to include Fire and blood‘s Tessario and Moondancer, who would complete the total pit. These two are both family dragons in the Targaryens arsenal.
While Condal’s reference to “five new dragons” is just a thin tease House of the Dragon fans, it’s probably as good as we’ll get for a while. There’s no official word yet on a release date for season 2 of the show, which means it’s likely to air in 2024 at the earliest. If you need a little more comfort, Martin did say he hasn’t been on the run House of the Dragon not set at all, especially since he’s working on a new book that you may have heard of.