Ever since its announcement back in 2019, House of The Dragon has been a hot topic of debate among various Game of Thrones and fantasy genre communities. Will it be as good as Game of Thrones? Will it stick to the lore? Would they ruin it like Game of Thrones Season 8? Is the prequel even necessary? Are there any other spinoffs at work? A few of those questions have been answered in the past few weeks, such as when is the release date for House of The Dragon, and there are a few more that are still burning bright in the minds of inquisitive fans.

So here’s an attempt to summarise the factors upon which the success of the Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon depends:

1. A complete and mapped out script

Unlike Game of Thrones, Fire and Blood, the book on which the prequel is based, is a completed work. Hence it will follow a basic framework of George R. R. Martin’s ideas from the beginning to the end. The chances of the prequel losing its track in later seasons are negligible, since the writers already have a complete script, and therefore reducing the probability of repeating the Game of Thrones season 8 mishap.

 

2. Martin likes the episodes he has seen so far

Very few fans remember that the pilot episode of Game of Thrones was a complete mess, no one had any idea what they were doing. Showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss had to beg the HBO executives to give them another chance. While Martin did have fun having a cameo in the original pilot, he revealed that it was so hilariously messy that they had to trash it and redo the episode with a bunch of new actors (a little bit of foreshadowing of S8, maybe?). Well, the likelihood of that happening with House of The Dragon is next to zero, because so far Martin has had only positive things to say about the episodes he has watched so far, including the pilot.

 

3. Massive Budget

HBO and HBO Max have been doing great, especially after the recent downfall of Netflix. They’ve got tonnes of cash to pour on promising projects, including House of The Dragon. That’s why the Game of Thrones prequel’s first season’s average production costs amount to $20 million per episode, which is a lot more than the first season of the original show. We can only expect this budget to increase in later seasons, as seen in Game of Thrones.

 

4. No involvement of D&D

If there was an FAQ page about House of The Dragon, this question would probably be on top of the list. Well, anyone looking for the answer can rest easy, because David and Dan are NOT involved in any way with House of The Dragon. A lot of fans blamed them for the Game of Thrones finale controversy, so we can understand the anguish still lingering at the back of your head. House of The Dragon is helmed by Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal, who directed some of the best and highest-rated episodes of Game of Thrones, ever! They understand what makes GoT really GoT, so be assured to get some high quality content in House of The Dragon.

 

5. More Dragons!

House of The Dragon features a lot more dragons than Game of Thrones. And rest be assured, a lot, like a LOT more dragon vs dragon action than Thrones. This is something that fans still miss about GoT, the majestic dragons, and we are going to witness some of the biggest, baddest, and most ferocious of these beasts in House of The Dragon.

 

While House of The Dragon shows a lot of promise, there are several reasons why it may not perform as expected. Some of them are:

1. Impact of Game of Thrones Season 8

It has been nearly 3 years since the finale aired, but the petition to remake the Game of Thrones season 8 is still going on strong. It goes on to show how badly fans were hurt to watch their favourite show take a nosedive into the trash can, and why a lot of them might be unwilling to trust a franchise that broke their hearts all those years ago.

 

2. Budget not as massive as other shows

Yes, the average cost of production for House of The Dragon season 1 is far more than that of Game of Thrones, it is still less than what rival networks are spending on their highly awaited shows. The first season of Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings TV show has a budget of $465 million alone, making it the costliest TV series to be ever produced. The billion-dollar question remains, will House of The Dragon be able to withstand such tough competition?

 

3. Complaints about wigs, ethnicity

There have been several complaints about the wigs used for House of The Dragon, saying that they looked ‘cheap’. While they did look better in the teaser, we expect them to get even better by the time the full trailer is released. Also, a lot of fans who have read Fire and Blood have objected to the ethnicity of the Velaryons, who look different in the books. We will have to see if this will make an impact on the reviews of House of The Dragon (hopefully not).

 

4. Teaser received an underwhelming response

While the teaser did generate a lot of hype, and fetched high views in a short time (10 million in 3 days), this is still lower than what most expected. Hopefully, the full trailer will perform much better.

 

5. Very high expectations

Game of Thrones was the biggest show of the decade, hence the expectations are going to be really, really high. This is the reason why even a figure as big as 10 million YouTube views in 3 days seems pale in comparison to the craze for GoT at its best.

Will Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon be a success or failure? Share your views with us in the comments below!