'The House of the Dragon' returns Monday with the third season

The universe of Game of Thrones continues its expansion with a new season of the franchise's most successful spin-off, House of the Dragon. The wait between the first and second seasons was two years, and the series' team is repeating the strategy. Fans have had to test their patience for two more years. Finally, on June 22, HBO will release the first of eight new episodes, each an hour long. HBO maintains the release schedule and the number of episodes per season —the first had 10—, and will release them weekly, every Monday, to air the season's final episode on August 10. The platform has also announced that it will conclude the series with a fourth season which, following the series' timeline, is expected to premiere around 2028, and will conclude the Targaryen era.

With a good exercise of memory, followers of the fiction will remember that the last episode of the second season ends right in the middle of the Battle of Gullet, which displeased critics and fans alike. Throughout the series, expectations grow for the confrontation between Corlys Velaryon's ships and the Triarchy pirates for control of the strait between Dragonstone and the mainland, and it promised to be one of the most epic battles to date. For this reason, it is expected that the third batch of episodes will begin practically in media res with the resolution of this clash. Viewers who have previously read Fire & Blood, the book on which the series is based, know that during the battle there will be very significant —indeed, plural— casualties. Ryan Condal, showrunner of the third season, describes the chapter as "possibly the most insane television episode ever made".

From the new installment, the continuation of the conflicts foreshadowed during the previous two seasons is also expected, with scenes of bloody brutality, a multitude of dragons, and a grand display of special effects. There will be new faces in the new season. Joining the series are James Norton, who will play Ormund Hightower, Aegon's new ally; Dan Fogler as Torrhen Manderly, an ally of the Blacks; and Tommy Flanagan, who will play Lord Roderick Dustin, leader of the Winter Wolf clan. The rest of the main characters will also be in the new episodes, trying to survive in a universe where viewers have learned not to get too attached to any character.

HBO Max released the official trailer for the penultimate season of the series and it is already anticipated that the elements will be fire, dragons, and blood.

House of the Dragon takes place two centuries before Game of Thrones, and alternates its broadcast —almost annually— with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the second spin-off of HBO's great success. In the timeline of George R.R. Martin's fantasy universe, the latter is located between the other two. The new series premiered in January of this year and, with the conflicts of House of the Dragon resolved and under the splendor of the Targaryen reign, the story, with the dragons extinct, follows the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg. HBO confirmed another season of the series, which has become an attempt to maintain the medieval fantasy essence of the franchise with a special focus on the population of the time, and not on the power struggles of families with surnames.

Following the premiere, the most ardent fans of Martin's universe have reopened the debate about the publication of the sixth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. The writer began writing it in 2011, and since then fans have not ceased in their insistence that he finish it. In an interview he gave to The Hollywood Reporter, Martin explained one of the worst moments he experienced at WorldCon. He was answering questions from the audience when someone asked Martin if he would let another writer finish The Winds of Winter, given that the author is 77 years old. "You won't be around much longer," the fan snapped at him. But when asked about the possibility of abandoning the book, Martin replied: "I would consider it a total failure. I want to finish it".