Game of Thrones is back in the form of prequel House of the Dragon with an all-new cast who turned out last week to launch the show at a premiere in Los Angeles. The new showrunners, who took over from David Benioff and D B Weiss, are Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik.
The show, which is all set to premiere on HBO Max on August 21, the Game of Thrones prequel recently hosted a preview screening of its pilot episode for members of the media and the initial reviews are looking great.
Many of the original show’s fans have their doubts about the new prequel following the anticlimactic ending to Game of Thrones, but it now seems like HBO and George R R Martin have managed to move past that hiccup and create a series that’s even better than its predecessor.
Collider‘s editor-in-chief Steven Weintraub said “I did not like the last season of Game of Thrones. At all. But I’ll admit the series premiere of House of the Dragon is really well done and I’ll continue watching.”
Another Collider critic, Christina Radish penned, “Sometimes you’ve just gotta spend the night hanging out with a dragon!”
She added, “For those curious about the series, without spoilers, I can say that the thing I really dig is the fact that it still feels epic in scale and scope while telling a personal and intimate story about one family, showcasing both their love and dysfunction.”
The Wrap‘s Brandon Katz wrote, “The House of the Dragon pilot very efficiently explains its context in relation to GoT, introduces its core characters, and lays out the central conflict of the series. It’s an easy-to-follow premiere with vibrant colors and detailed texture. Absolutely a worthy successor so far.”
Cooke said she enjoyed the strained scenes between her and D’Arcy featured in the trailer. “It’s so fun for me because acting opposite Emma is like going toe-to-toe with (boxer) Mike Tyson. I love them so dearly and … on screen, it looks like we hate each other but I absolutely adore them.”
For D’Arcy, this is her biggest role to date and she is bracing herself for sudden fame. “I’m really excited for the show to have an audience. What that does for me in my day-to-day, I can’t speak for but I’m really excited to see what people make of it,” D’Arcy said.
