House of the Dragon Season 2 Release Schedule: Full List of Episodes & Dates
When can we expect new episodes of HOTD?
Summary
- The second season of House of the Dragon has premiered.
- Although ratings are down slightly from Season 1, viewers are excited about the first two episodes.
- Each new episode airs on Sundays.
The first two episodes of the second season of House of the Dragon are already available for streaming, and in a few days the third episode will premiere on HBO and Max. Unfortunately, unlike the first season, Season 2 has eight episodes instead of ten. The reason for the fewer episodes was a long-term decision by HBO executives to produce the fantasy series over multiple seasons, well beyond three.
We can only expect more developments in the civil war in Westeros known as the Dance of the Dragons. But before we speculate on what's in store for us, let's take a look at the release schedule for the upcoming episodes.
House of the Dragon Release Schedule
The new season of House of the Dragon is scheduled to run from June 16, 2024 through August 4, 2024. Like the first season, House of the Dragon Season 2 airs on HBO and is available on HBO Max Library on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET. Check out the full HOTD Season 2 schedule below:
- S2E1, 'A Son for a Son' — June 16, 2024
- S2E2, 'Rhaenyra the Cruel' — June 23, 2024
- S2E3, TBA — June 30, 2024
- S2E4, TBA — July 7, 2024
- S2E5, TBA — July 14, 2024
- S2E6, TBA — July 21, 2024
- S2E7, TBA — July 28, 2024
- S2E8, TBA — August 4, 2024
HOTD Second Season Viewership and Scores
Despite the cold reception of the last two seasons of Game of Thrones, HBO has made an insanely big bet on its prequel. Each episode costs $20 million, many times the price of GoT. Of course, all of this has made the show a huge ratings success.
However, the long two-year wait clearly took its toll on Season 2, as viewership dropped slightly compared to Season 1. The first episode of Season 2 debuted to 7.8 million viewers across linear and streaming TV, while the overnight premiere of Season 1 drew 9.99 million viewers. This decline has also been attributed to criticism of Season 1 for its pacing and overly dark visuals.
However, critics and viewers who had seen the first two episodes were much more appreciative of the new season. On Rotten Tomatoes, it has a 91% rating from critics and 90% from viewers, and those numbers are likely to rise as new episodes are released — by comparison, the first season received 90% and 82%, respectively.
This is bound to have a long-term effect on the show, and will likely secure not only bigger budgets for HOTD, but also a future beyond the third season.
What Can We Expect from Season 2 and Beyond?
So far House of the Dragon has followed the events described in Fire & Blood very closely. As we saw in the second episode, both sides of the civil war do not want to call it even after the death of the two princes, Luceris and Jaehaerys. A series of bloody battles follow, weakening both sides.
Fans familiar with the source material look forward most to the final dragon battle between Daemon and Aemond, known as the Battle Above the Gods Eye. However, given the popularity of both actors, Matt Smith and Ewan Mitchell, and their characters, the writers seem to be leaving that for next season.
Considering that Martin is currently working not only on a new book in A Song of Ice and Fire series, but also on the second volume of Fire and Blood, it is possible that the next seasons will touch on a fundamentally new chapter in the history of House Targaryen. However, it all depends on how warmly the audience will accept the following seasons.