One House of the Dragon star recently teased that the upcoming third season of the series will fix one of the biggest issues fans had with Season 2, while also revealing a bit of what viewers can expect to see in general when Season 3 is released. House of the Dragon Season 2 was a success for HBO and the Max streaming service when it was released, but it was also quite controversial, as many believed it to be a step down from Season 1 in terms of quality. However, fans are holding out hope that the Game of Thrones spin-off will get back on track with the upcoming installment.
In an interview with Entertainment Tonight (as shared via TikTok) that was conducted while House of the Dragon Season 3 was still filming (production has ended on Season 3 as of writing), series star and Daemon Targaryen actor Matt Smith talked about the upcoming installment and revealed how it will be different from Season 2, and fans will surely love what he had to say.
When Smith first mentioned working on House of the Dragon Season 3, he revealed that the upcoming batch of episodes will undoubtedly be "bigger" in terms of "scale" and how "epic" it is, at least compared to Season 2. The House of the Dragon star also simply added that fans can expect Season 3 to be "bigger and better" in every way:
"I'm filming that now. I think we've tried to be bigger and better this year. The kind of scale of the show this year does feel a lot bigger and sort of more epic, actually."
House of the Dragon fans had a few major issues with the show's sophomore season, but one of the outright biggest problems many agreed on was the lack of action across the eight episodes, and the lack of notable events. Yes, there was a major battle in Episode 4, and some big sequences (Blood and Cheese), but many felt like Season 2 should have contained more than it did.
According to Smith, Season 3 will pick up the slack left by Season 2. The soon-to-be Star Wars actor also teased that the upcoming season of the show will include "a lot of blood and a lot of guts." Of course, he did not reveal any specifics, but he also mentioned that he had been working with "a lot of big set pieces:"
"We're now coming to the last sort of couple of months of filming. We've got a lot of big set pieces to get through. There's a lot of blood and a lot of guts, I'll say that."
"A lot of blood and a lot of guts" sounds as though there will be more than one major action scene in Season 3, which would be a step in the right direction for House of the Dragon after Season 2 dropped the ball quite a bit.
The next Game of Thrones series (A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms) will be released on HBO Max in January. However, House of the Dragon Season 3 is still expected to premiere on the streaming service sometime in 2026.
Which Major Events Will Take Place in House of the Dragon Season 3?
House of the Dragon Season 2's lack of action was not the only criticism a lot of fans had when that season was released. Something else many pointed out was how the show significantly changed events from the source material or simply added in scenes that were never referenced in George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood.
So, it is possible that Season 3 could also not adapt Fire & Blood as faithfully as many fans would like. However, assuming that it does at least keep the major events from the book the same, fans already have a pretty good idea of what to expect to see in Season 3.
According to showrunner Ryan Condal, Season 3 will feature four major events from the Dance of the Dragons. He did not say what those events will be, but considering how Season 2 ended, and where in the timeline Season 3 will take place, book readers likely have an idea of which four events Condal was referencing.
Without getting into any spoilers, the four major events will most likely be the Battle of the Gullet, the Fall of King's Landing, the First Battle of Tumbleton, and the Fall of Dragonstone. It is possible that The Fall of Dragonstone could be replaced with the Battle Above the Gods Eye, but since that particular event will have major ramifications on the entire series, it would make more sense for it to be delayed until the fourth and final season.
Even if those are not the four major events Condal was talking about, it still seems as though fans are in for a treat with House of the Dragon Season 3.
