HBO Exec Defends House Of The Dragon Showrunner After George RR Martin Comments

HBO executive Casey Bloys defends House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal after George R.R. Martin’s recent comments. Ahead of the premiere of the latest Game of Thrones spinoff, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the author opened up about his rocky relationship with Condal, calling it “abysmal” due to disputes over changes to his book Fire & Blood that impact key characters and plot points.

Now, during an interview with Deadline, Bloys said that HBO values Martin as the creator of the world, but accepts that creative disagreements are normal, and firmly backed Condal and House of the Dragon‘s direction, noting that Martin handpicked Condal.

Martin remains under an overall deal with HBO, but has stepped back from House of the Dragon season 3, and has been focused instead on Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Read Bloys’ full comments below:

Like any good American family, I would prefer that our dysfunction stays behind closed doors. But here we are. What I would say is George introduced us to Ryan as the person that he thought would be the best to create House the Dragon. And I will say Ryan has been an excellent showrunner and a really great partner and collaborator, so we embrace his vision and his creative choices, or we wouldn’t have done it.

I consider it great to have George as the architect of this world. I mean, think about what he has created, the world, the families, the battles, all of the history, it’s pretty extraordinary. George is a great partner for us to have. The idea that he is going to agree with every creator or showrunner that is either developing or producing, two artists are not always going to agree. So, some of this comes with the territory.

He definitely took a step back. And I would say he’s definitely been focusing on Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. And I will tell you one of the reasons why [head of drama] Frannie [Orsi] and I really thought about the Knight of Seven Kingdoms as an interesting adaptation is, we had always heard and know that it was George’s favorite, that was meaningful to us.

During a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin revealed that his relationship with Condal is “worse than rocky, it’s abysmal.” When Condal was brought on to run House of the Dragon, Martin believed they would work together as true collaborators, especially given their shared roles as co-creators and executive producers. Martin said:

“I hired Ryan. I thought Ryan and I were partners. And we were all through the first season. I would read early drafts of the scripts. I would give notes. He would change some things. It was working really well — I thought.”

During the first season, their collaboration seemed to go well, with Martin reviewing early scripts and offering feedback that Condal incorporated. Tensions emerged after co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik exited following a conflict with Condal. Once Condal became the sole showrunner, Martin says he felt ignored, as his notes no longer led to revisions.

Condal would sometimes justify his decisions, while other times he said he was considering the feedback but made no changes. As Martin’s frustration grew, HBO executives ultimately asked him to route his notes through the network:

“Then we got into season two, and he basically stopped listening to me. I would give notes, and nothing would happen. Sometimes he would explain why he wasn’t doing it. Other times, he would tell me, ‘Oh, okay, yeah, I’ll think about that.’ It got worse and worse, and I began to get more and more annoyed. Finally, it got to a point where I was told by HBO that I should submit all my notes to them and they would give Ryan our combined notes.”

In Martin’s widely discussed House of the Dragon blog post, which went viral about a month after the season 2 finale, he sharply criticized Condal for altering key storylines in ways he believed would have major long-term consequences for the narrative. Although he later removed the post, Martin now says he nearly restored it:

“I would’ve put it back up, but then I would’ve looked like an idiot. And 80% of it was praise, but that’s not what people focused on.”

House of the Dragon season 3 was filmed from March to October 2025, and HBO has confirmed that it will air in summer 2026, though a premiere date has yet to be announced. Martin has instead been focusing on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which has proven to be a successful endeavor, receiving a stellar 95% Rotten Tomatoes score from critics and debuting with one of HBO Max’s top three best premieres in history.