The second-season pickup comes as little a surprise, given HBO’s financial investment in the show, as well as the fact that the premiere shattered HBO’s record for the biggest premiere audience for a new show ever. Nearly 10 million people tuned in across all platforms this past Sunday, with HBO now claiming that number has risen to 20 million after four days of playback.
“We are beyond proud of what the entire ‘House of the Dragon’ team has accomplished with season one,” said Francesca Orsi, executive vice president of HBO Programming. “Our phenomenal cast and crew undertook a massive challenge and exceeded all expectations, delivering a show that has already established itself as must-see-TV. A huge thank you to George, Ryan, and Miguel for leading us on this journey. We couldn’t be more excited to continue bringing to life the epic saga of House Targaryen with season two.”

Set 200 years before the events of HBO’s “Game of Thrones” series and based on author George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood” book from the “A Song of Ice and Fire” universe, “House of the Dragon” tells the story of House Targaryen.

While a second season renewal for “House of the Dragon” was all but guaranteed — Martin and co. were already talking about Season 2 plans during their panel at San Diego Comic-Con in July — the fact HBO made the choice after airing just one episode shows how much faith parent company Warner Bros. Discovery has in the series ahead of any sustained significant viewer reaction.

With 10 episodes that cost just under $20 million apiece to produce, “House of the Dragon” is a years-long effort on the part of the HBO team led by chief content officer Casey Bloys to find a worthy follow-up to “Game of Thrones.”

“House of the Dragon” stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans. Additional cast includes Milly Alcock, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Emily Carey, Harry Collett, Ryan Corr, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jefferson Hall, David Horovitch, Wil Johnson, John Macmillan, Graham McTavish, Ewan Mitchell, Theo Nate, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson, Phia Saban, Gavin Spokes and Savannah Steyn.

Martin co-created the series with Ryan Condal, who is co-showrunner alongside “Game of Thrones” director Miguel Sapochnik. Additional executive producers include Sara Hess, Jocelyn Diaz, Vince Gerardis and Ron Schmidt.

“House of the Dragon” airs Sundays at 9 on HBO and begins streaming at that time on HBO Max.