‘House of the Dragon’ Showrunner Gives Us Faith In the Battle of the Gullet

The Big Picture

• House of the Dragon
  showrunner promises more battles in Season 3.
• Ryan Condal explains the decision to hold off on the Battle of the Gullet, building anticipation for the upcoming major events in the series.
• Battle of the Gullet is teased to be the biggest event yet in
  House of the Dragon
  , promising to satisfy fans with a complex and exciting storyline.

By the time the credits rolled last night on the Season 2 finale of House of the Dragon, many of those watching stared in disbelief, wondering how the most action in the finale was a mud wrestling match. It’s not that we didn’t love seeing Tyland Lannister (Jefferson Hall) throw down in a sloppy pit, but it felt like the eight-episode season was building up to something that would blow our socks off. The final moments saw the realm going to war, with the Blacks and the Greens marching off to meet one another on the battlefield and Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) coming to a deal with Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). And while it foreshadowed the events that will follow in the far-off third season, audiences undoubtedly felt a little disappointed that the battle of Rook’s Rest was the only big conflict of the season.

At the same time, many of us held our breath when Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) announced his plans to march for Harrenhal, where his uncle, Daemon (Matt Smith), has been busy chasing ghosts, having visions, and raising an army in support of Queen Rhaenyra. By that point in the episode, there didn’t seem to be nearly enough time for what we’ve all long known was coming — the legendary Battle of the Gullet. For those who haven’t read the book on which the series is based, Fire & Blood tells the story of Aemond and Daemon’s clashing in one of the most epic conflicts that we’ll see in House of the Dragon.

Hot on the heels of the second season’s finale, showrunner and co-creator, Ryan Condal, held a press conference during which he addressed all things about the future of House of the Dragon. With Collider’s Therese Lacson in attendance, we now know why the team didn’t push to jam the Battle of the Gullet into the second season, with Condal reinvigorating our excitement for the confrontation to come.

“One of the challenges of making television at any scale, even this scale which seems to be one of infinite time and resources, which is… it’s just never the case. I mean, nobody has infinite time and resources. As a showrunner, you’re always in the position of having to balance storytelling and the resources that you have available to tell that story. And you’re also starting to think about, one of the things that really came into play in Season 2 is,
what is the final destination of the series
, and where are we going? And I think it was a combination of factors that led us to rebalance the story, knowing now where we’re going and we know what that end point is, to rebalance the story in such a way that we had three great seasons of television to round out and tell this story.

And we knew we were going, and we know how those things kind of break up and break out. And when you’re trying to mount this show, which requires a tremendous amount of resources: construction, armor, costumes, visual effects,
we were trying to give the Gullet
, which I would say is maybe the second most anticipated action event of
Fire & Blood
, trying to give it
the time and space that it deserves
.”

When Will the Battle of the Gullet Throw Down?

With only two seasons remaining in House of the Dragon, there’s a lot of action that Condal and the rest of the team need to make happen. Teasing where the Battle of the Gullet will fall on the show’s timeline, Condal said:

“Obviously, as anybody that’s seen the finale, we are building to that. That event will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling of
House of the Dragon
. It should be, I mean, based on what we know now, it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off, and we just wanted to have the time and the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans in the way it’s deserved. And
we also wanted to build some anticipation toward it.
I know everybody wants this to come out every summer. It’s just that the show is so complex that we’re really making multiple feature films every season. So
I apologize for the wait
, but I will just say if Rook’s Rest and the Red Sowing are any indication, the team that we have together,
we’re gonna pull off a hell of a win with the Battle of the Gullet
in the future.”

Seasons 1 and 2 of House of the Dragon are now streaming on Max.

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