'House of the Dragon' gets early season 2 renewal at HBO

"House of the Dragon" is coming to HBO in full force, with an early season 2 renewal.

The renewal comes as a bit of a surprise, given HBO's financial investment in the show as well as the fact that the premiere broke HBO's record for the biggest premiere audience of all time. Nearly 10 million people logged in across all platforms last Sunday, with HBO now claiming that number has risen to 20 million after four days of reading.

"We are beyond proud of what the entire 'House of the Dragon' team has accomplished with the first season," said Francesca Orsi, HBO's Executive Vice President of Programming. "Our phenomenal cast and crew took on a huge challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-watch television. Many thanks to George, Ryan and Miguel for guiding us on this journey We couldn't be more excited to continue bringing the epic saga of House Targaryen to life with Season 2."

Set 200 years before the events of HBO's 'Game of Thrones' series and based on the book 'Fire & Blood' by author George R.R. Martin from the 'A Song of Ice and Fire' universe. "House of the Dragon" tells the story of House Targaryen.

While a renewal of the second season of "House of the Dragon" was almost guaranteed - Martin and co. were already talking about plans for Season 2 during their panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July – the fact that HBO made the choice after airing just one episode shows just how much parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has confidence in the series before any significant reaction from viewers.

With 10 episodes that cost just under $20 million each to produce, "House of the Dragon" is the culmination of a years-long effort by the HBO team, led by the content director Casey Bloys, to find a worthy sequel to "Game of Thrones."

"House of the Dragon" stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D'Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno and Rhys Ifans. Additional cast includes Milly Alcock, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Emily Carey, Harry Collett, Ryan Corr, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jefferson Hall, David Horovitch, Wil Johnson, John Macmillan, Graham McTavish, Ewan Mitchell, Theo Nate, Matthew Needham , Bill Paterson, Phia Saban, Gavin Spokes and Savannah Steyn.

Martin co-created the series with Ryan Condal, who serves as co-showrunner alongside "Game of Thrones" director Miguel Sapochnik. Other executive producers include Sara Hess, Jocelyn Diaz, Vince Gerardis and Ron Schmidt.

"House of the Dragon" airs Sundays at 9 a.m. on HBO and begins streaming at that time on HBO Max.

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