Filming is officially under way on another Game of Thrones spin-off, as House of the Dragon season two helped the streaming service Max to its biggest day ever.
According to Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), some 7.8 million people tuned in to watch the first episode of House of the Dragon's second run on Sunday (June 16), across both HBO and Max; that figure was down from the 10 million who watched the first season's premiere, but it still helped Max to its biggest global streaming day ever, according to Variety. Admittedly, the comparison is not exact, given that Max didn't exist when HOTD S1 arrived, but it's still an impressive figure all the same.
Now WBD has confirmed that production of another Game of Thrones spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, has officially started, and revealed five more cast members set to join the show's ensemble. The five in question are Finn Bennett (True Detective: Night Country) as Aerion Targaryen, Bertie Carvel (The Crown) as Baelor Targaryen, Tanzyn Crawford (Tiny Beautiful Things) as Tanselle, Daniel Ings (The Gentlmen) as Ser Lyonel Baratheon and finally Sam Spruell (Fargo) as Maekar Targaryen.
Set a century before #GameOfThrones, the new @HBO Original drama series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is now in production. Coming soon to @StreamOnMax. pic.twitter.com/CS7tX7iND2June 18, 2024
It was also announced that Owen Harris, the director of Black Mirror's best episode 'San Junipero' (he was also behind 'Be Right Back'), would be joined by Sarah Adina Smith (Lessons in Chemistry) in the director's chair for three of the six episodes.
The show, which is adapted from George RR Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novels, is not due to be released until late 2025 but given the popularity of the Game of Thrones prequel, it's likely to be one of the best Max shows.
More Westeros adventures are coming
RR Martin once said in an interview with The Guardian that when he started writing Game of Thrones, he originally thought it might be a short story. How wrong he was. Since the original show wrapped in 2019, it has spawned its own fledgling TV ecosystem, with eight spin-off shows said to be in development at HBO last year.
At least one of those is now seemingly dead, with Kit Harington revealing that a mooted series about Jon Snow was "off the table" in an interview in April. However, that could still leave as many as seven projects to look forward to. And that doesn't even include season three of House of the Dragon, which has already been confirmed, so there's plenty of Westeros action in the pipeline.
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