How to watch House of the Dragon, and find out what will happen in season two

Key Takeaways

House of the Dragon season two premieres on June 16, 2024 after a long break, continuing the Targaryen civil war.
Watch on Max streaming service, with new episodes airing on HBO simultaneously.
Get caught up before season two by watching the last episode of season one or delve into George R.R. Martin’s books for deeper insights.

Season two of House of the Dragon is finally here.

The hit series that brought fans back to Westeros after the conclusion of Game of Thrones is finally returning to our screens after a long hiatus. The new season kicks off on June 16, 2024, ending a drought of over a year and a half without Game of Thrones content. The prequel series will continue to cover The Dance of the Dragons, a Targaryen civil war that erupted almost 200 years before the events of the original Game of Thrones series. The conflict pits two factions of Targaryens against one another, as they both believe different characters should rule from the Iron Throne.

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With such a long gap between season one and two, it’s entirely understandable if you’ve forgotten huge parts of the show, or even how to watch it. We’ve rounded up everything you need to know, starting off with the most important detail, where you can watch House of the Dragon season two.

Where to watch House of the Dragon season two

A new streaming service for season two

Max

Subscription with ads: $9.99 per month or $100 annually
Premium Subscription: starts at $16.99 or $150 annually
Simultaneous streams: 2
# of profiles: 5
Originals: yes
Live TV: yes, just live sporting events
Free trial: No

Like all other Game of Thrones content, you can watch it live on HBO. If you’re looking for where you can stream the show, episodes will also premiere on the Max streaming service at the same time they air on HBO. New episodes will hit HBO and Max at 9pm EST every Sunday from June 16th until season two ends on August 4th.

The last time House of the Dragon aired, it premiered on the older version of the streaming service, HBO Max. If you haven’t tried Max yet, you can check it out with a one-week free trial. Of course, Warner Bros. Discovery, the company that owns HBO and Max, decided to raise the price of the ad-free subscription tiers ahead of the premiere of season two of The House of the Dragon, increasing the two premium subscriptions by a dollar to $16.99 and $20.99 respectively. The ad-supported tier is still $9.99.

Spoilers for Season two of House of the Dragon below

What happened in season one of House of the Dragon

Family drama taken to a whole new level

House of the Dragon

A Game of Thrones sequel series set 170 years before the events of Game of Thrones following the story of a civil war that would change the Targaryen dynasty forever.

Creator: Ryan Condol and Miguel Sapochnik
Starring: Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Rhys Ifans
Genre: Fantasy
Number of Seasons: 2
Number of episodes: 10

Most of the first season of House of the Dragon is spent laying the groundwork for the civil war that will erupt in Westeros following the death of King Viserys Targaryen I (Paddy Considine).

Viserys names his firstborn daughter Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) as his successor on the Iron Throne, ignoring Westeros’ rules on inheritance, which exclude women from lines of succession. Viserys then marries Rhaenyra’s childhood friend Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), following the death of his first wife. Together they have three more children, the oldest of whom is a boy named Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney). When the King maintains his daughter will succeed him instead of his new son, it creates a crisis of succession that results in two factions ready to kill each other as soon as Viserys dies: The Blacks, led by Rhaenyra and her husband/uncle Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith), and the Greens, led by Alicent Hightower and her father Otto, in support of her son Aegon’s claim to the throne.

While the two queens attempt to defuse tensions between the factions, it proves nearly impossible to stop as they each have advisors pressuring them to destroy the other at every turn. The war is made totally unavoidable after Rhaenyra sends her oldest child, Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), to meet with the Baratheons at Storm’s End. There he is eaten alive by Aegon’s younger brother’s dragon, Vhagar. This leads us into the first episode of season two, which is titled “A Son for a Son.”

What to watch before House of the Dragon season two

How to find out what happens before season two starts

While there’s still (barely) enough time to binge-watch all of the first season of House of the Dragon before season two premieres, we’d recommend you at least watch the last episode of season one to get reacquainted with the characters. Beyond that, there are a few other options that might make the new season even more fun while connecting it to the original Game of Thrones series. Or, if you’d like to know what to expect in the story ahead, we’ve rounded up all the George R.R. Martin books that touch on the Dance of the Dragons. Even better, there’s an animated special included on the season five DVD of Game of Thrones that will fill you in on every major plot point that occurs during the events of House of the Dragon.

House of the Dragon: Season 1 episode 10: The Black Queen

Reason to watch: Refresh before season two

House of the Dragon

The final episode of season one set the stage for the coming conflict. Rhaenyra and Alicent make last ditch efforts to avoid a civil war that the rest of both of their factions view as inevitable. That hope is lost when two of their sons, Lucerys and Aemond, meet at Storm’s End, both seeking to secure the Baratheons as an ally. The two young princes lose control of their dragons leading to Aemond’s dragon Vhaegar making a quick snack of Lucerys.

Make sure you don’t miss the final scene of the episode, as Prince Daemon awakes a huge sleeping dragon deep in the caverns underneath Dragonstone. That dragon is Vermithor, the former mount of King Jahaerys and the second-largest dragon in the world.

Game of Thrones: Season 1 episode 1: Winter is Coming

Reason to watch: The Starks are coming back!

House of the Dragon is set in 129 AC, while Game of Thrones is set in 298 AC. However, the families that make up the major houses of Westeros are still present. You might have noticed one glaring omission in season one of House of the Dragon: the Starks never appeared. That is set to change with season two, as Tom Taylor is set to take on the role of Cregan Stark, Ned’s great-great-great-great grandfather. His father swore an oath to Rhaenyra, but will he be as big of a stickler for oaths and honor as his descendants are?

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Game of Thrones: Season 5 episode 9: The Dance of Dragons

Reason to watch: A in-episode explainer of House of the Dragon

Game of Thrones

If you’re interested in watching some Game of Thrones episodes that connect to House of the Dragon, the episode named for the civil war covered by the new series is a good starting point. This episode features some fun dragon moments, including Daenerys becoming the first person to ride a dragon in 150 years. However, the real reason to check out this episode is that it features Shireen Baratheon discussing the events of the civil war known as the Dance of Dragons with her father as she awaits her grisly fate.

Game of Thrones: Season 7 episode 5: The Spoils of War

Reason to watch: Why dragons are so important

Game of Thrones

One of the few cool moments from the final two seasons of Game of Thrones is seeing the advantage dragons give you on the battlefield. You can get an early glimpse of what’s ahead in season two of House of the Dragon with this episode. Daenerys leads her dragons in an attack on the Lannister army as it attempts to bring a long train of loot home from Highgarden after defeating the last of the Tyrells.

This episode shows the problems even the largest army can face while dealing with a dragon, which should serve as a great reminder of what’s important in season two of House of the Dragon. As both sides fight for allies to increase the size of their armies, the most important number is how many dragons and dragon riders each side has. This will be critically important, as both sides end up with more dragons than they have dragon riders in season two.

The Dance of Dragons animated feature

An animated short detailing the entire plot of House of the Dragon

If you’d like to know the entire story of House of the Dragon, you can check out this 20-minute long animated feature that was included on the DVD for season five of Game of Thrones. The story is narrated by actors from Game of Thrones and covers almost all the major turning points that encompass the Dance of Dragons.

For instance, at around the 5-minute mark you can see exactly how the Rhaenyra and the Blacks plan to avenge Lucerys’ death, by killing one of Aegon’s children. This scene is so dark, it’s almost worth seeing in animation to prepare yourself for how horrible it will likely be in live-action. Hurry though, episode one’s title, “Son for a Son,” is a direct reference to this incident.

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What to read before House of the Dragon season 2

Find out everything before it happens on the show

The World of Ice & Fire: The Untold History of Westeros and the Game of Thrones

By George R.R. Martin

A history of the known world written by a Maester for King Tommen’s ascension to the throne following Joffrey’s death.
Fire & Blood

By George R.R. Martin, Elio M. Garcia Jr., Linda Antonsson

$17 $22 Save $5

Part one of the 300 year history of the Targaryen dynasty. The second half of the book deep dives the Targaryen civil war that makes up the plot of House of the Dragon.

If you are someone who picked up the books during the original Game of Thrones series, and enjoyed knowing what was coming before it happened on the show, you can do that again for House of the Dragon. It is a little different, however. The main narrative for House of the Dragon is spread across a few short stories and two in-universe history books, all of which are written by George R.R. Martin. The two most important are The World of Ice and Fire, and Fire and Blood. Both books are written from the perspective of historians in the Game of Thrones universe, writing down the history of the Targaryens at a much later date. This makes the narratives in these books a little more unreliable than they were in the original Game of Thrones adaptation.