Why House of the Dragon season 2 will be a lot shorter than the first instalment

There's good news for Game of Thrones fans. 

The series' prequel, House of the Dragon, is set to return for a second season fairly soon, though we don't yet know the exact premiere date for it.

"House of the Dragon has returned," showrunner Ryan Condal told Deadline back in April.

"We are thrilled to be shooting again with members of our original family as well as new talents on both sides of the camera. All your favourite characters will soon be conspiring at the council tables, marching with their armies, and riding their dragons into battle."

While this sounds utterly thrilling, we have a while to wait yet before Matt Smith, Rhys Ifans and Fabien Frankel grace our small screens again alongside the rest of the cast.

Cosmopolitan reports that filming is set to end sometime this summer, and that the hope is we might get to watch the result at some point in 2024, though we'll have to wait for an official announcement to confirm this.

Sadly, there's a catch where season 2 is concerned: it will only count eight episodes to season 1's ten, but still, it's better than nothing — and maybe this will mean the eight episodes will be even more intense, since there's more to pack into a shorter space.

In fact, that's exactly what it sounds like, if series director Clare Kilner's recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter is anything to go by.

"There are eight wonderful episodes with so much happening in every episode, and we have trouble, at times, bringing them down to one hour," Clare told the publication.

"Ryan [Condal’s] decision was to give it a good opening and a good ending, and they’re jam-packed with emotional and visually exciting events."

Well! We absolutely cannot wait for this — although, as mentioned, we will unfortunately have to. Patience is a virtue?