While the final season of Game of Thrones may not have stuck the landing in the opinion of many fans, that hasn't stopped HBO from diving back into George R.R. Martin's world. The network gave a straight-to-series order to House of the Dragon last year, which will be a prequel series set 300 years before Game of Thrones based upon George R.R. Martin's "Fire & Blood," a Targaryen history book which chronicles the history of House Targaryen, starting off with "Aegon the Conqueror, creator of the Iron Throne, and [going on] to recount the generations of Targaryens who fought to hold the throne, all the way up to the civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons, that nearly tore their dynasty apart."
After an extensive casting search, it's been announced that Paddy Considine has been tapped to headline House of the Dragon. The actor is slated to play King Viserys Targaryen, who has been chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen. A warm, kind and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandather's legacy, but good men do not necessarily make for great kings. Considine has been featured in TV shows such as Peaky Blinders and The Outsider, as well as movies like THE BOURNE ULTIMATUM, THE WORLD'S END, THE GIRL WITH ALL THE GIFTS, THE DEATH OF STALIN, and more. The ten-episode series was co-created by George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal, with Condal slated to pen the script alongside Sara Lee Hess as well as serve as co-showrunner alongside Miguel Sapochnik.
House of the Dragon wasn't the first Game of Thrones prequel to move foward, as HBO initially ordered a pilot for another series that was set thousands of years before the main series and was written by Jane Goldman. The pilot starred Naomi Watts as a "charismatic socialite hiding a dark secret" but HBO elected not to pick the series up. "In development, in pilots, sometimes things come together, some time they don’t. One of the things I think Jane took on beautifully, which was a challenge, there was a lot more role creation because she set hers 8,000 years before the (mothership) show, so it required a lot more," HBO's Casey Bloys explained earlier this year.