Unlike the first season of House of the Dragon, which had ten episodes, Season 2 has been previously announced to have only eight episodes. However, the recent news on episode length may more than make up for the fewer episodes.
The premiere episode is revealed to have a runtime of 64 minutes. Its title, A Son for a Son, hints at a vengeful plot to even the odds after Rhaenyra Targaryen’s son Lucerys falls in the hands of her half-brother Aemond.
Episode 2, on the other hand, will run for a whopping 72 minutes, setting a new record as the longest of the series. This extended runtime is ten minutes longer than the average episode length of Season 1.
While House of the Dragon's shorter season may shock viewers, this is not new in the Game of Thrones universe, where Seasons 7 and 8 only had seven and six episodes, respectively.
Author and executive producer George R.R. Martin acknowledges this shift in TV production over the past decades, addressing the time jumps in HOTD Season 1 that may have been a result of limited episodes.
He previously wrote in his blog: "There are only so many minutes in an episode and only so many episodes in a season. Fewer and fewer as time goes by, it seems… If House of the Dragon had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to “time jump” over, though that would have risked having some viewers complain that the show was too “slow,” that “nothing happened.” ”
HOTD’s shorter second season has been attributed to different factors, including the limitations during the Hollywood strikes and budget cuts, but an HBO spokesperson confirmed to Deadline that the move is “story-driven,” which will allow the showrunners to map out the story through future seasons and properly highlight impactful moments.
With the imminent renewal for a third season and a goal of at least four full seasons to “do justice to A Dance of the Dragons,” the showrunners appear to be preparing for the long run with fewer but longer episodes.
House of the Dragon Season 2 premieres on June 16.