House of the Dragon season 2 has plenty more fire and blood in store for us – and, you’ll be pleased to know, more dragons, too.
“We have a whole ton more this season, with new personalities and colors, silhouettes and sounds and behaviours, and all these things,” showrunner Ryan Condal teases in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features The Boys season 4 on the cover. “It’s challenging to keep track of because they are characters in their own right. On a practical level, they’re big, they’re expensive, they’re time-consuming, so you really have to pick your spots where you’re going to dive in and do the really challenging stuff that can suck resources out of the show quickly.”
He continues, “I’m very proud with the way we pulled off the dragons in season one. That’s all credit to my excellent directors and crew. The vendors of the visual effects houses that modelled and then animated and brought those dragons to life, it’s really an accomplishment. As great as a sequence that was in episode 10, I think we’ve raised the bar in season two.
“In making any of these big shows or big movies, you get into an arms race with yourself,” he says. “Sometimes it’s bigger and badder and more expensive. Other times, it’s just, ‘What haven’t we seen before? What’s the new thing to see?’
“So we actually have a bunch of [dragon] things, but there’s two particular huge sequences that we’ve done this season. I think we have outdone ourselves, and I’m quite proud of both of these sequences as a visual execution spectacle, but also on a storytelling level with what happens with them, and the way the world was before and the way the world is afterwards.”
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House Of The Dragon is on Max (US) from 16 June and Sky Atlantic (UK) from 17 June.
The above is just a snippet from our interview, available in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which features The Boys season 4 on the cover and is available from Wednesday, June 12. Check out what should look for on newsstands below…