House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal has described Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin's criticisms of the series' second season as "disappointing." This comes after Martin publicly criticized the show in August 2024, focusing on plot elements involving Aegon and Helaena's children and expressing concerns about future seasons. Although Martin's post was later removed from his website without explanation, it had already garnered attention from thousands of fans and HBO.
During a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Condal shared his thoughts on Martin's criticisms, highlighting the strain on their relationship. He expressed his long-standing admiration for Martin, saying, "It was disappointing. I will simply say I've been a fan of A Song of Ice and Fire for almost 25 years now, and working on the show has been truly one of the great privileges of, not only my career as a writer, but my life as a fan of science-fiction and fantasy. George himself is a monument, a literary icon in addition to a personal hero of mine, and was heavily influential on me coming up as a writer."
Condal acknowledged the challenges of adapting Fire & Blood for television, noting that the source material is an "incomplete history" that requires significant creative input. He emphasized his efforts to involve Martin in the adaptation process, stating, "I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. Over years and years. And we really enjoyed a mutually fruitful, I thought, really strong collaboration for a long time. But at some point, as we got deeper down the road, he just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way."
As a showrunner, Condal explained the need to balance creative vision with practical production demands: "And I think as a showrunner, I have to keep my practical producer hat on and my creative writer, lover-of-the-material hat on at the same time. At the end of the day, I just have to keep marching not only the writing process forward, but also the practical parts of the process forward for the sake of the crew, the cast, and for HBO, because that's my job. So I can only hope that George and I can rediscover that harmony someday."
Condal also noted that each creative decision takes "many months, if not years" to finalize and that he oversees everything before it reaches the audience. His goal is to create a show that appeals to both Game of Thrones readers and a broader television audience.
Despite tensions, HBO and Martin continue to have multiple projects in development, including A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which Martin has called a "faithful adaptation," and potentially another Targaryen-centered spinoff. Meanwhile, House of the Dragon has begun production on Season 3 following a successful second season, which received a 7/10 in our review.
