By Sometime after House of the Dragon Season 2 aired, author George R.R. Martin took to his blog to talk about his frustrations with the direction the show has taken. He took it down, but the toothpaste was out of the tube already. Much has been said by both sides and now Martin speaks again on what happened.
“This is not my story any longer”
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin detailed how his and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal’s relationship deteriorated over time: “[The relationship] is worse than rocky. It’s abysmal.“
Martin continued how it started quite well: “I hired Ryan. I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought.”
Then Martin detailed how things went sideways: “Then we got into season two, and he basically stopped listening to me. I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn’t doing it. Other times, he would tell me, ‘Oh, OK, yeah, I’ll think about that.’ It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes.”
THR further adds through their sources that things got even worse during a Zoom call between GRRM, Condal and other HBO executives, discussing Season 3. They quote Martin saying “This is not my story any longer” during the call.
From the other camp, Condal made a public reply saying: “I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. … But at some point, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way .. I just have to keep marching forward for the sake of the crew, the cast, and for HBO, because that’s my job … I can only hope that George and I can rediscover that harmony someday.”
House of the Dragon Season 3 is set to premiere in June 2026 while A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms starts on January 18, 2026. Stay tuned for more news!
