When Ryan Condall learned he would be co-starring “House of the Dragon,” the much-anticipated prequel series to “Game of Thrones,” he had a moment of immense pressure.
Condall told TheWrap during a panel for TheGrill, “It’s from ‘Oh, that’s interesting’ to, ‘Oh my god, I think they’re really trying to make it too early,’ which is pretty cool. Is.” “But then I think the pressure is just feeling like you have to follow the Beatles, and how do you follow the Beatles? And the answer is you don’t. You just make your own thing and expect people to come along.” and will see it.
People passed Come along and see it. “House of the Dragon” marked the biggest single-day debut for a series in HBO Max history and earned critical and audience acclaim as its first season continued over the past few weeks.
Set 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones”, it tells the story of the beginning of the end of the Targaryen regime, based on George R.R. Martin’s “Fire and Blood”. The series reaches adulthood as a character played by Princess Renera Targaryen (played by Millie Alcock in the first five episodes and Emma D’Arcy in the latter half of the season) and Queen Alicent Hightower (Emma Carey and, later, Olivia Cooke), Focuses on childhood. Best friends whose bond is broken under the burden of politics and tradition.
During The Grill panel, Condall discussed his decision to draw inspiration from “The Crown” and reprise the roles several times in the first season to cover a lot of ground. It was a risk, but it seems to have worked.
“We saw what ‘The Crown’ did and really admired it. And I think it’s one of the shows that definitely I, as the showrunner and lead writer, when we’re in the room, So in terms of the kind of drama we were willing to make, we pointed to ‘The Crown’ as one of our references,” Kondal explained. “And I think that’s a high watermark in the art form as an aspiration in terms of what I think is the case. ‘The Crown’ is pretty successful at taking well-known characters and then recasting them. They did it between seasons. , we did it in the middle of the season. I think the big deal was doing it mid-season with a brand new show and trusting that the audience would sink their teeth into the characters and then stick with you Because you swap them. And so far, I think it’s paid off.”
Condall’s original pitch to HBO for the “Game of Thrones” spinoff was much smaller in scale, though it covered similar ground.
“Everyone knows at this point that I was a super nerd to the world of George R.R. Martin and I’ve read his books several times, and ‘Dunk and Egg’ in particular, which, in addition to the original books, was his favorite. It happened in Westeros and it was a different story. It’s a completely different tone and feeling, and I actually pitched it to HBO two years before I got this job,” Kondall told future Lord Commander of the Realm and Told about the story of a young Aegon V Tagarine. “I still, frankly, like the idea of that story as a counterpoint to the original ‘Game of Thrones’ and what we’re doing, because it’s more of a ‘Lone Wolf and Cub.’ There’s more to The Mandalorian versus the original “Star Wars,” where it’s just two people making their way through this very complex and dangerous and overly political world who aren’t necessarily political themselves, which I’ve always been a fan of. The adventure seemed as interesting as the story to tell in Westeros.”
Condall describes “House of the Dragon” as a “Greek tragedy” in contrast to the “massive Homeric story” of “Game of Thrones”, and Season 1 gives us all the details of Rainera and Alicent’s relationship before the bloody civil war. Giving backstory. come.
“What we did was set out to go deep into their history and tell the story of these two women as young girls and see them grow up together and become quite fond and close friendships with each other, only To get over it, the men around him took the pressure off him,” Kondal, who produced Season 1 with “Game of Thrones” veteran producer and director Miguel Sapochnik, said. “Patriarchal pressures, especially their fathers, who both have political responsibilities in their lives, and in this world where marriage is duty and power, look at how those pressures apply in their lives, and then see that How it exposes them is different.”
The showrunner said that it was important to have a representative cast and crew when telling the story of the two women, and also outlined the decision – “controversial” in some fan circles – to create Valerian Black.
“I think the reason it’s been a successful choice – I mean, not everyone will ever be happy – is because it wasn’t made or just ticked a box, as it was thought. seen as progressive or as someone who’s covering bases or anything like that,” Condall explained of casting black actors in Valerian roles, specifically Lord Corliss himself, Sea Snake, played by Steve Toussaint.
“It’s 2022, it’s a different era in which the show was used to, we have an incredibly diverse audience that’s not only across America, but in many countries that speak all kinds of different languages that speak to the sun. Below represent all colors. , she continued. “And it was really important to see some of them reflected on the screen. It’s a fantasy world. I think if it was a historical fiction work, it would have been a more nuanced discussion. But I think That only because of the fictional world, if we believe in dragons and shapeshifters and direwolves, we can believe that not everyone in the story is white.”
Condall also touched on the show’s alleged rivalry with Amazon’s “Lord of the Rings,” saying he’s happy as long as more high-quality fantasy TV shows are being made.
“I don’t think someone watching ‘Rings of Power’ means they’re not watching ‘House of the Dragon,’ I don’t see it that way,” he continued. “I see that one feeds into the other, and I think that more good quality genre entertainment on television will attract as much of the general public who may not be so predisposed to see it.”
And while Kondall doesn’t see “House of the Dragon” to last as long as “Game of Thrones” (“I don’t think this series has as much leverage to get out of it”), Westeros’s The future is bright on HBO.
“As long as there’s an interested audience, there are plenty of Targaryens to come.”
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