‘House of the Dragon’: Author George RR Martin wanted a different starting point for series

Fire & Blood author George RR Martin has said that he had suggested a different point in his novel to start the story for the House of the Dragon series. The author said this during an exclusive interview with fellow fantasy writer David Anthony Durham for Penguin Random House.

When asked about the most difficult creative decision in the making of the series, George revealed that the writers had many possibilities for where to begin telling the story of the House of Targaryen.

“One of the writers wanted to begin it later, with Aemma dying. Skip the Great Council, skip the tournament, a scream sounds out, Aemma is dead, that’s where you begin.”

He continued, “That was one possibility. Another of the writers wanted to begin even later than that, with Viserys dying. But what happens there? Then you have to present all that material in flashbacks or dialogue, which becomes challenging, too. But we discussed all these possibilities.”

Revealing what he himself would have preferred the starting point to be, the American author said, “I would’ve begun it like 40 years earlier, with an episode I would’ve called ‘The Heir and the Spare. Jaehaerys’ two sons, Aemon and Baelon, are alive, and we see the friendship but also the rivalry between the two sides of the great house. Then Aemon dies accidentally when a Myrish crossbowman shoots him by accident on Tarth, then Jaehaerys has to decide who becomes the new heir. Is it the daughter of the son who’s just died, or the second son who has children of his own and is a man where she’s a teenager? You could’ve presented all that stuff, but then you would’ve had 40 more years, and even more.”

Ultimately, the TV series begins with the Great Council convened by King Jaehaerys Targaryen to decide whether his heir should be Princess Rhaenys, the daughter of his eldest son, or Prince Viserys, the son of his second son. Martin, who has long experience in film and television, said there’s no right or wrong answer on where to begin. “There are many ways you can approach these things and if you do it well, it can work.”

House of the Dragon, which ended with a cliffhanger finale on October 23, is the prequel to HBO’s hit fantasy series Game of Thrones and is based on Martin’s Fire & Blood novel. The second season of the series is expected to air in 2024.