No more House of the Dragon time jumps – the actors are playing their characters "until the end"

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Ryan Condal confirms the show will be sticking with its cast from now on

Olivia Cooke and Emma D'Arcy in House of the Dragon
(Image credit: HBO)

House of the Dragon season 1 featured several time jumps and recastings throughout its run. Rhaenyra and Alicent were recast in a decade-long time jump, and then several actors played their respective children as the show continued to jump forward in time. 

By the end of the season, we had two or three versions of most of the main characters – bar Matt Smith’s Daemon, who appeared to not age – and covered 28 years of history. But now showrunner Ryan Condal has confirmed the time jumps will be a thing of the past come House of the Dragon season 2. 

"I will say, as a reward to our wonderful audience for following us through all the time jumps and recasts, they are done," he told Deadline. "We tell the story in real time from here forward. The actors are playing these characters until the end. We’re not recasting anybody. We’re not making any huge jumps forward in time. We are now in the Dance of the Dragons, and we’re gonna tell that story."

Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, and Rhys Ifans will all be sticking around as the scheming Targaryens and Hightowers. Although, it's not yet clear how many seasons it will take to get to "the end" of the story as only a second season has been confirmed by HBO so far. 

George R.R. Martin has argued that it will "take four full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish." While The Hollywood Reporter suggested the current plan is for the show to run for three or four seasons.

Fay Watson
Fay Watson
Deputy Entertainment Editor

I’m the Deputy Entertainment Editor here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for the Total Film and SFX sections online. I previously worked as a Senior Showbiz Reporter and SEO TV reporter at Express Online for three years. I've also written for The Resident magazines and Amateur Photographer, before specializing in entertainment.