'House of the Dragon' showrunner on S2: 'Exciting'

House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal teased the next season will take things to an upper level after the previous season set the groundwork.

Speaking to Deadline, the director said, "I'm excited to pick up where we left off," adding, "We did the hard, complex work of setting up this entirely new dynasty and family and all the players in Season 1 and took the time to do all the character work so you understood where everybody fell along the line of are they on Alicent's side of the equation, Aegon's side or are they on Rhaenyra's side and Daemon's side."

Condol also added that two-less episodes in season two compared to the sophomore season would not affect the storytelling, which will focus on the chaos after the Targereyns face-off.

"We did the hard, complex work of setting up this entirely new dynasty and family."

He continued, "The excitement now is that we get to fall into the more traditional rhythms of storytelling and see where that story is going to go."

"We've always talked about this particular tale, and George has talked about it too, about this being a Shakespearean or Greek tragedy, Condal added.

"Whereas the original series is like this big epic, a sweeping fantasy about light and darkness, ice and fire, this series is very much about a house tearing itself apart from within," he continued. 

"Now that all those pieces have been set on the board, I'm really excited to tell the next chapter, to see what happens now that Viserys is gone and is no longer keeping a lid on things."