HBO’s ‘House Of The Dragon’ To Premiere Just Two Weeks Before Amazon’s ‘Lord Of The Rings’ Series

By Liz Kocan @lizburrito
Published March 30, 2022, 1:12 p.m. ET

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HBO announced today that its Game of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon will debuts Sunday, August 21 on HBO and will also be available to stream on HBO Max. The announcement, while exciting for GoT fans, is also surprising considering that this means House Of The Dragon will be premiering two weeks before another highly anticipated fantasy series launched, Amazon Prime Video’s Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power, which will arrive on September 2.

Though House of the Dragon was originally promoted as an HBO Max Original series, the show will now premiere all episodes on both HBO and HBO Max, on Sundays throughout its run, a rep for HBO confirmed to Decider. This breaks convention from HBO Max’s usual streaming day (big premieres normally drop on Thursdays), but is typical for a top tier HBO show. Exact timing of the episodes is TBA, however: a prestige HBO show usually will premiere in the 9pm ET hour, with a simultaneous premiere on HBO Max; while HBO Max shows drop at 12am PT/3am ET. Chances are House of the Dragon will fill the old Game of Thrones slot at 9/8c, but as mentioned, that’s TBA, other than it rolling out similarly to other HBO Sunday night series.

Along with a premiere date, HBO also released several brand-new photos of the characters who will appear in the show. (The first official photos from the set were released last May.)

House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, and the ten-episode series, which takes place 200 years before Game of Thrones, will provide a backstory on the family history of Daenerys Targaryen. Fire & Blood, which was published in 2018, is just the first part of a two-part history of the Targaryan legend, and the story includes the origins of Daenerys’s dragon eggs, and the family’s legacy in Dragonstone.

Among the shows stars are Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen, the younger brother of King Viserys and heir to the throne, Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, king’s first-born child, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, the Hand of King Viserys, and Paddy Considine as King Viserys.

This story has been updated to include more information on release dates for subsequent episodes.