George R.R. Martin wrote in an Oct. 11 blog post that “House of the Dragon” will need to run a total of 40 episodes if it wants to fully tell the story of the Targaryen civil war, commonly referred to as the Dance of Dragons. The first season of the HBO prequel series runs 10 episodes, so Martin is envisioning a four-season run for the show. HBO has already greenlit a second season of “House of the Dragon.”

“When I was a boy, shows had 39 episodes a season,” Martin wrote. “By the time I was writing for ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ it was down to 22.  Cable shrunk that even further. ‘The Sopranos’ had 13 episodes per season, but just a few years later, ‘Game of Thrones’ had only 10 (and not even that, those last two seasons). 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.’”

Martin continued, “As it is, I am thrilled that we still have 10 hours every season to tell our tale. ‘Rings of Power has only eight, as you may have noticed, and my AMC show ‘Dark Winds’ is doing six-episode season. I hope that will continue to be true. It is going to take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish.”

“House of the Dragon” has spanned over 20 years during its first 10 episodes, with the cast routinely being updated with older actors. Martin wrote that the show’s time jumps have been “handled very well,” although he wishes there was even more time to explore certain plot points, such as the affair between Rhaenyra and Ser Harwin and the marriage of Daemon and Laena.

Martin went on to praise Paddy Considine’s performance as King Viserys, particularly in the season’s eighth episode. The installment served as Considine’s swan song.

“The character he created for the show is so much more powerful and tragic and fully-fleshed than my own version in ‘Fire & Blood’ that I am half tempted to go back and rip up those chapters and rewrite the whole history of his reign,” Martin wrote. “Paddy deserves an Emmy for this episode alone. If he doesn’t get one, hey, there’s no justice.”

“House of the Dragon” continues its run on HBO this Sunday at 9pm ET.

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