Ryan Condal: ‘The House of the Dragon’ “interacts with current politics” but is not “a contemporary allegory”

This Monday, June 22, the first episode of the third season of ‘The House of the Dragon’, a prequel to HBO Max, arrives on HBO Max. ‘Game of Thrones’. The series adapts passages from the book ‘Fire and Blood’ by George RR Martin and tells a bloody civil war for the Iron Throne within the Targaryen familyknown as Dance of the Dragons. Despite being set in a fantasy world, it is possible to establish parallels between fiction and reality, although that was not the goal of the showrunner, Ryan Condal.

“I’m not writing a contemporary allegorya”, Condal expressed in a virtual press conference with several media outlets, among which Europa Press was present. The director points out that ‘The House of the Dragon’ began development in 2019 and “will end in 2028 or thereabouts”, explaining therefore that “It would be a mistake to try to make it an exact allegory of what is happening today“.

Condal admits that, Both the series and the book on which it is based deal with issues that are “universal throughout history and in the modern era.” such as, for example, “women and power”, something that “is not only relevant today” but has always been a big topic. “So no, we do not allow ourselves to be influenced or modified by current events at all,” he assures.

In any case, although the showrunner tries to “keep any type of current commentary out of the series as much as possible”, he is aware that he cannot “control what people interpret.” “But what we do is tell a story and we are not trying to be an essay on political and current affairs“he repeats.

But the director does not deny that the series can interact in some way with reality and highlights how in the universe created by Martin, common images of high fantasy are subverted, such as the concept of “the chosen one” or the ideas of “predestination and prophecy. And Rhaenyra Targaryen is not like Luke Skywalker in ‘Star Wars’ or Frodo and Aragorn from ‘The Lord of the Rings’.

In this sense, the fiction explores what happens when the main character is told “that the gods have chosen him to rule and have given him the power of six dragons.” “At some point they start to believe their own propaganda. And they think they can do anything,” Condal points out. “And I love how that interacts with current politics and recent history, and the way people rise to power and those monarchical/autocratic political settings,” he adds.

THE SHOWRUNNER RESPONDS TO THE CRITICISM OF SEASON 2

The previous season of ‘The House of the Dragon’ provoked very divided reactions, especially due to its ending, but, according to the showrunner, it has not affected the direction they had already decided to follow. “We continue forward with the plan we had from the beginning and the series has always been like this: we have a plan and we are not going to pay attention to the noise that arises along the way“he declared.

The director is aware that it is a four-season series in which you have to wait at least two years between installments, but he points out that, “at the end of the day, it is a single story.” Thus, he equates this attitude with “getting angry about something halfway through,” as if, when watching a play, someone would get upset about a twist when there are still acts ahead.

“I understand the frustration. It’s a long time and there’s a long wait between seasons.“Condal acknowledges, but promising that it will be worth it. “I think everyone’s patience will be rewarded within a couple of weeks,” he points out.

The third (and, by all accounts, penultimate) season of ‘The House of the Dragon’ will consist of 8 episodes that will arrive weekly on HBO Max starting Monday, June 22. The cast includes Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Tom Glynn-Carney, Ewan Mitchell, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, Matthew Needham and James Norton. Tom Bennett, Kieran Bew, Kurt Egyiawan, Freddie Fox, Clinton Liberty, Gayle Rankin, Abubakar Salim, Tom Cullen, Tommy Flanagan, Dan Fogler, Joplin Sibtain and Barry Sloane complete the cast.