House Of The Dragon was announced with much fanfare by HBO late last year. But since its unveiling that included a teaser poster and an endorsement from George R. R. Martin who was confirmed to be involved in the show in a producing capacity, there’s little we’ve heard about it. Well, thanks to the coronavirus outbreak, Martin is now confined to his home and took to his blog to give us an update about the show. Plus, a little tidbit about The Winds Of Winter as well.

Martin revealed that House Of The Dragon is currently in writing stage. Showrunner Ryan Condal has assembled a writer’s room that comprises of Wes Tooke who worked with Condal on Colony writing 13 episodes, Claire Kiechel who wrote Netflix’s The OA as well as HBO’s new Watchmen series and Ti Mikkel who served as an assistant writer in Martin’s own production company. The writers are hard at work developing the scripts and since writing is something that’s relatively easier to do from home than some other production tasks, this hasn’t affected the show all that much.

While nothing is being filmed right now, development is continuing apace, since writers can still write at home. The only thing I am writing myself is THE WINDS OF WINTER, as I have said many times… but with my producer’s hat on, I am still involved in a number of exciting new shows for HBO, and a few film projects as well. When and if any of these make it to the screen, well, that’s always the question… but I do know that Ryan Condal and his team are roaring ahead on the scripts for HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, and that one has a full season’s order from HBO. As for the other stuff I may or may not be involved in, I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you all.

Martin had previously elaborated on the concept of a writer’s room, explaining it to those who may be unfamiliar with this method of conceptualizing TV Shows. This was largely geared at his book fans it seems who are more used to the idea of a singular author penning an entire story. Martin, through his insightful piece, helped explain just how much co-writers bring to the table.

Those unfamiliar with the way television works may wonder… if Ryan Condal wrote the pilot and the bible, what did Wes and Claire and Ti do? The answer is: a lot. They sat with Ryan every day in a writer’s room at HBO for months, talking story, going over drafts, giving notes, correcting errors (not that Ryan or I ever made any, no sir, not us), catching inconsistencies, discussing character and plot, offering ideas and suggestions, filling in gaps, breaking down the episodes to come and drawing up a roadmap for the first season and all the seasons to follow. The HOUSE OF THE DRAGON could never have been built without the help of Ti, Claire, and Wes, three terrific young storytellers. They have my thanks, and Ryan’s.

Finally, Martin also had a small tidbit to offer about his long gestating novel The Winds Of Winter. No, it isn’t a concrete release date or even a timeframe, but it’s more of an assurance that he is indeed hard at work on the novel and is making somep progress. At this rate, we’ll take that over nothing. Here’s hoping George comes around to finishing it.

No big news here, but it has been a week or so since my last blog post, so I thought I would say hi. I am still up in the mountains, doing the social distancing rag, and writing WINDS OF WINTER. I have good days and bad days, but I am making progress.

House Of The Dragon does not have a set premire date but HBO President Casey Bloys previously said we can expect it to arrive some time in 2022.