All the House of the Dragon season 3 news we’ve heard so far

House of the Dragon’s second season came to an end by filling the chess board with pieces and meticulously moving each one into position. While that didn’t make for the most explosive season finale in Game of Thrones history, it should shape up for a fantastic third season.

And, indeed, it seems HBO is already planning to pay off all the promise of that season 3 finale — namely with a big battle (more details on that below the spoiler warning) between the Greens and the Blacks that book-readers have been waiting for.

To give you a preview of the events to come, here’s everything we know about House of the Dragon season 3, which HBO has already greenlit.

Is House of the Dragon season 3 happening?

It’s definitely happening, and the announcement was made before season 2 even premiered. On top of that, creators Ryan Condal and George R.R. Martin have talked about keeping the show to a tight four(ish) seasons, and the show remains one of HBO’s most popular programs, so you can likely expect at least one more after season 3 as well.

When will House of the Dragon season 3 release?

A Deadline interview with HBO’s head of drama series and films Francesca Orsi confirmed the show will be coming back in 2026.

The gap between season 1 and season 2 was about two years, which makes this a similar gap between seasons 2 and 3. On top of that, HBO is supposed to release the new Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in late 2025, which should fill that year’s allotment of Westeros content.

Creator and showrunner Ryan Condal also said in a press conference after the season 2 finale that he and the writers were finishing up scripts. After that, Condal says, the team will start pre-production, with full production beginning likely in spring 2025. This would also put the show on track for a summer 2026 release date.

What will House of the Dragon season 3 be about?

Without going into the book spoilers, House of the Dragon’s season 2-ending montage certainly gave us some big clues about the future of the series. For instance, we know that Daemon is back on Team Rhaenyra for real now, and we know that the pair of them — along with their newly anointed dragon riders — are setting off for King’s Landing in the hopes of taking it quickly via overwhelming force. Meanwhile, Team Green is all over the map. Alicent is committing treason, Aegon is hiding away with Larys, and Aemond is setting fire to anything in site. All of this while every non-Targaryen house in Westeros prepares for open war.

In other words, we’ve got the makings of a very exciting season 3.

[Ed. note: OK now we’re going to go into spoilers a bit for some book developments that will be covered at the top of season 3. Read on only if you know or want to.]

It might’ve seemed like House of the Dragon was building to something big, only to just… end. Deadline points to the strikes in 2023 as a reason that the season wasn’t 10 episodes like the first (season 2 ended with episode 8). But in speaking with Deadline in mid-February 2025, HBO’s head of drama series and films Francesca Orsi said it will be “worth the wait.”

“I was just on set and saw all the elements and what was behind it. I’m so glad we waited because it’s going to be better than ever, and I don’t think we had the time at that point to do what it is that we’ve achieved now this season,” Orsi told Deadline. “It’s just so massive, we needed the time to build it. One of the lead producers on it [Kevin de la Noy] worked on Titanic, so all that he brought in terms of acumen of what happened on the Titanic and how that entire experience is built, he brings that expertise to it.”

Will that make the Battle of the Gullet hit as hard as it would’ve had it simply been the end of season 2? Who knows! But considering the House of the Dragon social accounts changed their bios to read “Nothing burns like betrayal,” it’s at least in the spirit of the season.

Should I read the book House of the Dragon is based on in the meantime?

Sure, why not! On the one hand, reading the Dance of Dragons chapters in Fire & Blood will help you understand the broad strokes that House of the Dragon is going to hit pretty well. On the other, it also won’t give you too many spoilers, because the show is adding incredible amounts of detail to events the book only sketches out briefly. In other words, the book is basically like watching an extended trailer for the rest of the show, which — depending on your preferences — can be a great way to kill time between seasons.

What will the next Game of Thrones spinoff series be about?

The next HBO series set in Westeros will be A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which follows the thrilling adventures of young Aegon V Targaryen, better known as Egg, and his trusted knight Ser Duncan the Tall. The series is based on several short stories from Martin which are a little bit closer to young adult fantasy than the rest of Game of Thrones, giving them a slightly lighter and more fun vibe.

In her Deadline interview, Orsi noted that the show seems to have legs moving forward (though, nothing official): “We’re already planning on how do we build this for the three seasons in total,” she said. “We’re not picking it up officially, but it’s looking very good. We’re looking at it as a holistic piece, Seasons 2 and 3, because there’s three novellas.

“The role of Egg only spans not even a year, so you have to roll into it season to season pretty quickly, because this little kid will grow up too quickly if we wait too long,” she added. “So we’re thinking about that in terms of pickups.”

The series is due out sometime in 2025, and HBO released the first short teaser after the House of the Dragon season 2 finale as part of a larger HBO 2025 sizzle reel.

And as part of that same Deadline interview, Orsi also confirmed that more Game of Thrones spin-offs were on their way beyond A Knight. In fact, apparently there’s so many options they’re not sure which one we’ll hear about first.

“We have other spinoffs that we’re working on right now, one of which — which I won’t get into — is very promising, and it is still the Targaryen line,” Orsi said. “There’s a number of other spinoffs, we can’t really guarantee what’s going to go forward, but we are very big budget on the other ones. I would say this is the most intimate one.”

Will Winds of Winter come out before House of the Dragon season 3?

Almost certainly not. And even if I did believe it might, I’d never jinx it by saying so out loud. For now, I’m going to continue to operate under the assumption that The Winds of Winter will probably not come out until hell freezes over, or the New York Jets (or much less likely, the Giants) win the Super Bowl, and so should you.