Editor’s note: Deadline’s It Starts on the Page features standout drama series scripts in 2023 Emmy contention. It showcases the critical role writers’ work plays in a show’s success. Arrangements were made before the WGA strike began on May 2.
The only way to kick off a prequel to Game of Thrones is to bring in the big gun — namely, a yellow dragon named Syrax.
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The very first introduction to HBO’s House of the Dragon was through a young Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) riding her beloved steed with abandon over the skies of King’s Landing. High above the Red Keep, she is free of drama: no one is trying to take away her birthright.
Too bad she had to land.
The series’ co-creator Ryan Condal had a lot to accomplish in the very first episode of HBO’s much-anticipated prequel, based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood novel. Besides introducing his key, tow-headed protagonist, he also had to establish lines of succession and who should and shouldn’t take over the throne.
And there was the birth of a Targaryen heir. Even author and House of the Dragon co-creator Martin didn’t expect that.
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Speaking at House of the Dragon’s 2023 FYC event, Martin used that scene from the pilot as an example of how his book series only provided a primer for the prequel. It was Condal who turned it into a something more. Way more.
“[They are] significantly different from the books that were the source for Game of Thrones,” Martin said. “Those are five, soon to be seven, I hope, novels that are fully developed with characters, the dialogue, the scenes, it’s all there. Fire and Blood is an imaginary history book that has a few scenes where I zero in and I give you a path page of a scene. I give you some actual dialogue, but mostly it’s history. It’s an outline and you can’t present an outline in television, so it has to be filled in. And that’s where I think Ryan and his staff of writers … have done a marvelous job.
“In Fire and Blood, for example, It is stated that Aemma Arryn dies in childbirth and her son dies the following day. There’s nothing about the most horrendous childbirth scene ever seen on television. [Looking at Condal] That was entirely the work of you and your writers. And it’s incredibly powerful scene that just my summary, one line would not have conveyed. There’s a lot of that in this show. It’s an adaptation, but it’s also a creation.”
Click below to read the pilot script for “Heirs of the Dragon,” Episode 101 of House of the Dragon, written by Condal and directed by Miguel Sapochnik. Predecessor Game of Thrones was an Emmy juggernaut, winning 59 trophies during his run, including four for drama series and two for writing.
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