‘House of the Dragon’ Showrunner’s Dragonless Targaryen Spin-Off Pitch Is the Most Intriguing Westeros Idea Yet
Few franchises have expanded their universe as aggressively as ‘Game of Thrones’, with HBO methodically filling out the calendar with Westerosi stories set across wildly different eras. Between ‘House of the Dragon’ season 3 arriving this summer and ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ already renewed for a second outing, it is genuinely an exciting moment to be a fan of George R.R. Martin’s world. The question of where the universe goes next has become one of the most hotly debated topics in fantasy television, and now the man steering one of its flagship series has thrown a genuinely surprising idea into the conversation.
‘House of the Dragon’ showrunner Ryan Condal spoke at length about the franchise’s future during a conversation at the SXSW London festival, reflecting on how much storytelling terrain Martin’s world still has left to explore. Condal has been the creative engine behind the Targaryen civil war saga since its inception, and his enthusiasm for expanding the franchise beyond the dance of dragons speaks to how deeply he has mapped out this universe in his mind.
The idea Condal floated is unlike anything currently in development. In his own words, the concept that excites him most is a story where the Targaryens are still at the height of their power in terms of controlling the kingdom, but no longer have their dragons, pointing to a rich in-between period that the existing shows have never touched. Speaking with Total Film, Condal put it plainly: “I think there’s a real opportunity to see a story where the Targaryens don’t have their dragons anymore. Where the Targaryens are still ruling, and like, how do you pursue rule? That seems like an interesting place.”
The concept would flip the traditional Targaryen power fantasy on its head entirely, and could feel closer to a political family saga, a game of ambition and survival, than traditional fantasy spectacle. One possible setting would be the years after the Dance of the Dragons, when the Targaryen dynasty was weakened and the family’s greatest weapon was gone, showing a side of Westeros that audiences have rarely seen. The shift in stakes alone would make for compelling television.
Condal was also careful to frame this as something entirely separate from ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’, which similarly unfolds in a world largely without dragons. He pointed to that series as proof that different tonal models and story approaches can work within the same universe, praising showrunner Ira Parker for telling the story of, in Condal’s words, the 99%, in contrast to ‘House of the Dragon’s’ focus on the ruling elite. The implication is that Westeros is large enough for radically different kinds of stories to coexist without cannibalising each other.
Meanwhile, Condal himself is already deep in the work of closing out ‘House of the Dragon’, with the fourth and final season confirmed and scripts actively being turned over to HBO. Beyond that, a ‘Game of Thrones: Aegon’s Conquest’ film, confirmed at CinemaCon, is being envisioned as a large-scale feature, with the story covering Aegon Targaryen’s original conquest of Westeros. The pipeline is fuller than it has ever been, and Condal’s dragonless pitch would only add to an already remarkable slate.
For now, the idea remains exactly that, an idea, but it is the kind of lateral thinking that could genuinely reinvent what a Targaryen story looks like on screen. Would you want to see the most feared dynasty in Westeros forced to survive on wits and politics alone, or does the appeal of the family live and die with the dragons themselves?
