House of Dragons is only going to be 10 episodes. Fire & Blood is a series of vignettes that take place throughout the history of the Targaryen rule with the show primarily based on the longest story. Rhaenyra will be a fine lead for the short series and her story is very compelling.
Really? I saw a youtube video where it was mentioned that in the casting it seems they had a Young Rhaenyra and Young Alicent, but both in their 20s, which meant that they would likely cast other women for the roles for later parts of the story. I thought it couldn't be possible, they can't be that dumb to think they need to recast a woman to play a 20-something Rhaenyra and then a 40-something one.
If this is what they are doing, then it's even worst. I guess they want to lower costs and risks or something, not get tied up to actors getting more expensive, not wanting to tie them up into long-term contracts, and this might also indicate a lot of faith or confidence.
I don't think this is going to work out. Someone clearly doesn't understand what drew viewers in for AGOT. You do NOT grow a viewer base by making a bunch of separate stories, it just makes it seem more daunting for the average viewer to get into, so they'll only get a niche crowd. People will want and expect to "love Cersei, love Tyrion" again, and yet any emotional investment they make will then be cut short because it's time to move on to another story?
Also, this will just contribute to the key problem I felt was going to plague the series: no passion, no sense of ownership, the whole thing being used as career stepping stones and then move on. Breaking it into vignettes will massively exacerbate the problem. AGoT was born out of passion, people got into it with no reason to think it would be great for their careers, so it needed vision, a tight ship, a sense of family. We've seen what happens with IPs once they reach this level of popularity but the show runners leave.
Also, I fail to see how they will justify the CGI expenses needed for the dragons if they are doing a bunch of separate stories like that. It doesn't add up. People will get attached to the presence of dragons, and then suddenly they take a backseat because this bit of story doesn't really have any? It doesn't work. In literature this is called "delivering on your promises", and vignettes works against this completely. Whatever they show in S1 is what people will expect the future season to deliver on. Is it a lot of politics and no magic, no dragons? Lots of war and dragons? Whatever happens in S1 is the kind of show people will expect. You can't hit the reset button every season.
Plus, a bunch of separate stories will hurt word of mouth. Everyone will either spoil everything to one another, or not talk about the show at all. People aren't going to all watch the episodes at the same time when they air and such, it's a different era now. But not sticking to a linear story will just make the shared enjoyment of the ongoing story even more difficult to replicate. And then those who aren't in on it will be utterly unable to really understand what the heck this show might be about, too many characters, too many separate stories. It's not good for marketing.
While one might not care about the show being niche, it won't last long if it is.
I mean, if it does well they will renew it for s2 and 10 more episodes
They can't wait a year to start filming S2. I mean they can, but HBO wouldn't want them to.
