Millions of Westerosi are looking forward to seeing the Targaryens and their dragons return to our screens once House of the Dragon Season 2 makes its much-anticipated premiere. However, there'll be less (sorry Stannis, we meant fewer) episodes this upcoming season, which won't necessarily be a bad thing.
In an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Director Clare Kilner revealed that the decision to cut down the number of episodes to eight was a strategic move to fit more "emotional and visually exciting events." Q: Can you give us a sense of why it made more sense for House of the Dragon to go shorter, with eight episodes in the new season instead of 10? A: There are eight wonderful episodes with so much happening in every episode, and we have trouble, at times, bringing them down to one hour. Ryan's decision was to give it a good opening and a good ending, and they're jam-packed with emotional and visually exciting events. Kilner has helmed some of the best episodes in the first season, namely Episode 4: King of the Narrow Sea, Episode 5: We Light the Way, and Episode 9: The Green Council. While these particular episodes may not have garnered the highest ratings, they undeniably held the most riveting and pivotal moments of the show.
For instance, in one, the ruthless Ser Criston Cole grisly murders a fellow knight, while in another, Princess Rhaenys orchestrates a daring escape on the back of her dragon Meleys, resulting in the tragic deaths of countless civilians. Kilner herself considers directing the latter episode her most noteworthy achievement of the season, stating: Episode nine, when [Eve Best's Rhaenys spectacularly interrupts a royal coronation on her dragon]. That was obviously a huge sequence, and I vividly remember grabbing the mic and screaming to all the supporting artists and actors, "The dragon is coming!" to whoop everyone up. Rhaenys had the perfect opportunity to end the war of succession before it even began.