House of the Dragon 2 expected to return in summer 2024; Succession likely to not get a spinoff

HBO also shared that the True Blood reboot has been cancelled.

February 23, 2023 - 2:01 PM IST

HBO has now given us a better knowledge on its flagship projects, including the hit Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, Succession, True Blood and Watchmen.

House of the Dragon 2 expected to return in summer 2024; Succession likely to not get a spinoff

According to Variety, while the production on Season 2 of House of the Dragon is just getting underway, HBO and HBO Max content CEO Casey Bloys confirmed that sometime in 2024 “is a good guess” for the hit series’ return. He also shared it’s “a good guess” that the show won’t be eligible for the 2024 Emmy season so fans can expect a likely return in summer 2024.

“My philosophy is a good script is number one priority. I am not doing it based on wanting to have one a year, two a year. I want to do it based on the scripts that we’re excited about,” he said adding, “Remember to get House of the Dragon following up from Game of Thrones, we developed a lot of shows, shot a pilot, developed a bunch of scripts and we got House of the Dragon.”

“To do that again is going to take the same amount of effort. You have to develop a lot of things, try things,” Bloys noted. “You never know what’s going to work. So, we’re currently doing that. I’m not opposed to any number of shows. There’s probably a natural limit to how many fans want, but I’m open to any as long as we feel really good about the scripts and the prospects for a series.”

“It takes a while to get one that hits the mark,” he further added. “I know George [R.R. Martin] feels the same way. You want to do one that everybody’s really proud of and excited about.” Among potential spin-offs is one featuring Kit Harrington reprising his role as Jon Snow; Bloys says there’s nothing to report on that one, but it’s still in development.

Speaking of Succession, should the upcoming season be the final one? Bloys is not much in favor of a spinoff. “I don’t think so,” he said when asked about a spinoff. “I always say ‘never say never.’ When we started talking about doing a Thrones’ prequel that was something that HBO had historically never done. I had some people internally saying, ‘This is crazy. What are you doing?’”

He added, “That said, I think that there’s something about the universe that George created that lent itself to [spin-offs]. There’s a huge history, a lot of different families, a lot of different wars and battles. It doesn’t seem to me that there’s something in ‘Succession’ where you would go, ‘Let’s follow just this kid’ or whatever. It doesn’t seem like a natural thing to me.”

Bloys went on to say, “But if [creator Jesse Armstrong] said I want to do this, then I would follow Jesse’s lead.” Meanwhile, Bloys also gave the same answer when asked whether there would ever be another installment of Watchmen. “Watchmen was so much his creation,” Bloys said of the executive producer Damon Lindelof.

“If he doesn’t think there’s a story that he wants to put his heart and soul into, it’s hard for me to think that it would be worth doing. It was a very special limited series for us. I would put it in the pantheon of HBO greats. If Damon ever wants to revisit it, he knows that it’s an open door. But it is hard for me to imagine doing one without him.”

As per the report, a return to True Blood was also considered, with HBO developing a few scripts, “but nothing that felt like it got there,” as Bloys shared.

Also Read: House of the Dragon writer teases the gruesome Blood and Cheese plot for season 2 – “I don’t think you’ll be disappointed”