As the first season of House of the Dragon comes to a close, George R.R. Martin says that four seasons are needed to do his story ‘justice’.
The fantasy drama is based on parts of the author’s 2018 novel Fire & Blood, which tells the history of House Targaryen, namely the events leading up to the family’s civil war of succession, known as the ‘Dance of the Dragons’.
At more than 700 pages, the book is extensive, which has led to creators of the show being forced to condense the storyline significantly.
Several time jumps have already happened this season, leaving some fans struggling to keep up.
Writing on his blog on Wednesday, Martin said that he wished the show had more time to portray ‘the relationship between Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin, the marriage of Daemon and Laena and their time in Pentos, the birth of various and sundry children’ and ‘everything else we had to skip.’
But he did say that he believed showrunner Ryan Condal had handled the jumps well and admitted that there were ‘only so many minutes in an episode’ and ‘only so many episodes in a season’.
However, fans reactions have been mixed, with some complaining about the switch in actors and the gaps in the story.
Martin also said he would love if there had been more time to explore some plot points – but that there is enough material to sustain additional seasons.
He added that he was ‘thrilled’ the show was able to have ‘10 hours every season to tell our tale’, adding ‘it is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish’.
Just five days after its premiere in August, it was announced that there would be a second season of House of the Dragon, however it has not yet been confirmed if there will be any more after that.
Although he met his end in this week’s episode, Paddy Considine’s portrayal of King Viserys was also praised by Martin in the blog post.
‘The character he created (with Ryan and Sara and Ti and the rest of our writers) for the show is so much more powerful and tragic and fully-fleshed than my own version in Fire and Blood that I am half tempted to go back and rip up those chapters and rewrite the whole history of his reign,’ he wrote.
‘Paddy deserves an Emmy for this episode alone.’
There are still two episodes of House of the Dragon to air.
Watch House of the Dragon on NOW and Sky Atlantic.
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