HBO‘s House of the Dragon season 4 will introduce new characters, dragons, and settings, according to showrunner Ryan Condal. Condal shared the tease at an August 7 press conference marking the season 3 finale, a 70-minute episode. It closed out one of the show’s most turbulent stretches.
Condal told reporters the story for House of the Dragon’s fourth and final season is already mapped out. “When Sara [Hess, executive producer] and I sat down with the writers, we essentially broke the back of season three and four together, at least in the superstructure of it,” he said. He called the ending “a great privilege” to control. “This is not a given in making television,” he added.
What Ryan Condal has teased for House of the Dragon season 4
George R.R. Martin already wrote the broad strokes of this story in his 2018 book Fire & Blood. Still, the series has taken detours along the way. Those include Alicent Hightower’s (Olivia Cooke) trip to Harrenhal, Rhaena’s (Phoebe Campbell) presence at the Battle of the Gullet, and Ormund’s (James Norton) death at the Battle of Tumbleton. Condal declined to give away plot specifics for the new season but promised scale. “We have new characters, dragons, and locations all to come that I think are going to make a very worthy final season,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to doing it with one of my favorite people in the world, Emma D’Arcy.”
Emma D’Arcy on Rhaenyra’s arc
D’Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra Targaryen, offered fewer specifics about where the character goes next. In the season 3 finale, “The Treasons At Tumbleton,” Rhaenyra loses composure. She learns her half-brother, King Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), survived and reunited with his dragon, Sunfyre. She orders the High Septon’s murder and declares the prophecy of the Prince That Was Promised to a confused crowd in High Valyrian. D’Arcy connected that unraveling to a broader theme: “Power turns out to be incredibly fragile, and that seats of power, their apparent stability, can turn out to be illusory. A broader conversation, which remains very pertinent, is how do you manage the ego? How do you manage the human ego in the political sphere? That feels like a pressing question.”
Condal drew a comparison to Game of Thrones. Rhaenyra’s descendant, Daenerys Targaryen (Emilia Clarke), made a similar turn toward violence near the end of that series. “It’s one of those existential themes that goes across the entire universe, which is the draw of the Iron Throne, what it does to a person in its thrall or the people that are trying to get to it,” Condal said. “The parallels do call to the greater themes of the A Song of Ice and Fire universe, which is pride and power, how power corrupts, and how far it corrupts. It can change good people into corrupted people, and it can take corrupted people and make them real villains.”
Questions heading into the final season
The season 3 finale left several threads open. Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) watched a conflict he might have stopped. It played out to a bloody end. Alicent Hightower’s feelings toward Aegon’s return remain unclear, especially with her daughter Helaena (Phia Saban) now dead. Condal has not announced a premiere date for House of the Dragon season 4. HBO has previously pointed to a 2028 arrival for the final season.