We need Condal and Martin to work it out under the Weirwood tree.
Photo: HBO
House of the Dragon season three is prepared to deploy its largest battle yet, but one behind-the-scenes battle may prove to be the most explosive. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, author George R.R. Martin got candid about his ego in regard to working with House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal — a relationship he calls “abysmal.” In late 2024, after the finale of season two of HOTD, Martin published a blog criticizing Condal and the production of seasons three and four, even revealing major future plot points to get his point across. The blog was swiftly deleted after a phone call from an “upset HBO exec.”
Martin explained the situation to THR by doubling down. “I would’ve put it back up, but then I would’ve looked like an idiot,” he said. “And 80 percent of it was praise, but that’s not what people focused on.” He did write that the initial episodes of House of the Dragon season two were “well written, well directed, powerfully acted,” only to skewer Condal’s decisions on the popular Blood and Cheese plotline. (To be fair, most people weren’t fans of the show’s changes as well.) That now-deleted blog was only one of six (!) planned blogs detailing his gripes with HOTD.
The fallout involved HBO benching Martin from HOTD, only to be “brought back aboard” months later. An HBO insider explained to THR that “George and Ryan had a disagreement on the direction of season three … it was clear that the process and communication with them was broken and needed a reset.” While Martin wouldn’t speak on the fallout, he did comment on his and Condal’s relationship up until that point. Their working relationship deteriorated in season two when Martin claims Condal “basically stopped listening to me.” He continued, “It got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes.”
Condal didn’t give an updated comment but pointed to his interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, in which he described the disappointing conflict: “I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did.” The showrunner added, “He just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way.” While you (and even Martin) can have your complaints about HOTD, Condal isn’t wrong. Fire & Blood is an unwieldy book to adapt. It’s not a traditional narrative novel like A Song of Ice and Fire or A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. There’s a large amount of characters, accounts, dragons (!), and battles littered throughout the decades in this Targaryen series. So, really, Martin and Condal just need to work it out on the remix under the Weirwood tree and realize their greatest enemy is the budget.
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