House of the Dragon Season 2 Rumored Release Window is Summer 2024
Filming has already begun on the 8-episode season.
We now know that filming is underway for House of the Dragon season 2. But we’re unlikely to get confirmation of its official release date until sometime later this year or early in 2024.
In February 2023, before filming began, Casey Bloys, CEO of HBO Max said HotD season 2 will not be eligible for the 2024 Emmys, almost guaranteeing it won’t land before 31 May. So, the summer or autumn of 2024 seems realistic.
House of the Dragon season 1 began filming in February 2021 and was released 16 months later in August 2022. That season consisted of 10 episodes – as opposed to just 8 being recorded for season 2 – and was recorded at Leavesden Studios, Watford, UK as well as on location in Derbyshire, Devon, Cornwall, Spain and Portugal.
We know that recording for Season 2 will once again take place primarily in Leavesden, with Spain already confirmed as a shooting location and others sure to follow.
There are also set to be five more dragons for season 2, which means more CGI than before. With 20% fewer episodes and CGI going on at the same time as filming, this season may well enter post-production quicker than season 1. So, while filming for the new season didn’t begin until April 2023, release date in summer 2024 still looks on the cards.
Certainly, Game of Thrones was consistently released in March and April throughout its reign – the only exception being season 7 which was recorded later as the showrunners needed a wintry backdrop.
With this in mind, we can expect HotD season 2 to land roughly 12 months after season 1 first aired. But with networks generally targeting their autumn audiences with late summer shows, anything earlier than August 22 seems unlikely. Aside from anything else, they won’t want the release date to coincide with peak holiday season.
So, all told, we can probably expect to get stuck into the next chapter in the history of the Targaryen dynasty in late August or September of 2024.
Season 2 sees the return of stars including Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke and Rhys Ifans. And it was recently announced that newcomers will include Simon Russel Beale as Ser Simon Strong, Gayle Rankin as healer Alys Rivers, Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull and Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower.