‘House of the Dragon’ showrunner has some choice words about George R.R. Martin’s criticisms of season two

House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal has finally responded after George R.R. Martin shared his criticisms of the show’s second season last year. 

In case you missed it, Martin — who authored the original book, Fire & Blood, upon which House of the Dragon is based — took to his blog last August to discuss the second season of the fantasy HBO series. While they have since been deleted, the blog posts saw Martin outline plans to write about “everything that’s gone wrong” with the show’s second installment, a promise which he made good on the following month. 

Reading George RR Martin’s blog post that criticizes — and spoils! — house of the dragon, and watching the chaos and Mess like pic.twitter.com/A9jmrcgWpu

— Lauren Sarner (@LaurenSarner) September 4, 2024

Those posts included criticisms of Condal making changes from the original book for season two of House of the Dragon, including the decision to remove the character of Prince Maelor. Martin said that decision would have repercussions for the broader future of the show, and claimed that he had raised these objections with Condal and “argued against it.” Now, Condal has hit back with his own thoughts on Martin’s criticisms, saying they were “disappointing.” 

Condal delivered his response in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly. The showrunner began by saying his work on House of the Dragon is “one of the great privileges of… my life as a fan of science-fiction” and praised Martin as “a monument, a literary icon” and “a personal hero,” before directly addressing Martin’s previous comments. “I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process,” Condal said, “and we really enjoyed a mutually fruitful, I thought, really strong collaboration for a long time.”

Showrunner Ryan Condal says “It was disappointing,” regarding George R. R. Martin’s criticisms of ‘HOUSE OF THE DRAGON’ Season 2:

“I will simply say, I made every effort to include George in the adaptation process. I really did. Over years and years. And we really enjoyed a… pic.twitter.com/BjGKzlrZBf

— westerosies (@westerosies) March 31, 2025

According to Condal, the pair reached a crossroads when Martin seemed unable to relent on some of the practical requirements involved in making a television series. “At some point, as we got deeper down the road, [Martin] just became unwilling to acknowledge the practical issues at hand in a reasonable way,” Condal said, adding that he struggled to “keep my practical producer hat on” as well his “creative writer, lover-of-the-material hat on.”

“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,” Condal added, “because that’s my job.” As for the specific practical matter that Martin seemed unwilling to budge on, the author wrote in his blog post last year about the difficulty of casting young actors, like that needed for the role of Prince Maelor, due to their aging in the off-seasons.

George RR Martin and Ryan Condal at the HBO crisis meeting tomorrow pic.twitter.com/LBvaLTbixh

— カサンダラ (@M0NK3Y_G1RL) September 5, 2024

Regardless of Martin’s thoughts on the trajectory of the show — he is still credited as an executive producer — Condal is still holding out hope for some kind of creative resolution in the future. “So I can only hope that George and I can rediscover that harmony someday,” he said, “but that’s what I have to say about it.” 

It remains to be seen how Condal’s changes will come into play for the remainder of the series, but we do know that production on season three of House of the Dragon has begun, with a release date expected for sometime next year.