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How Was House Of The Dragon Season 2 Shot During Industry-Wide Strikes? Actors Reveal Their Process
Know how House of the Dragon overcame industry strikes to deliver its highly anticipated season 2 amidst global challenges. The process went through behind to curate season 1 successfully has now been revealed.
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Despite industry-wide strikes, House of the Dragon continued production
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Showrunners Ryan Condal and Sara Hess accelerated their writing process
Creating a TV show is daunting enough. However, the team behind House of the Dragon had to surmount some extraordinary hurdles. These included weathering a global pandemic during the production of season 1 and industry-wide strikes as they prepared for season 2. Nevertheless, the show will premiere on June 16 on HBOMax.
Strikes disrupt the industry
In May 2023, just before shooting was due to commence, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) went on strike; they wanted better pay and labor rights where they worked. A few months later, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) joined in bringing showbiz to a standstill for months. This disrupted many projects but not House of the Dragon.
Leavesden Studios in London is where most of it is filmed. Equity acts as an employer for its makers since this U.K.-based actors' union was not on strike at that time. So these circumstances were successful in continuing with production even though setbacks occurred. Showrunner Ryan Condal who co-created it with his partner Sara Hess had to steer through those choppy waters.
Hess told Entertainment Weekly, “It was rough. It felt real s--tty, I'm not going to lie.” If writers walked away during filming, then WGA knew that would be it. They did not like this situation but accepted them as producers instead.
Preparedness and adaptation
The team already anticipated this kind of strike according to Condal.“The writing really was done. The writing is always done on the show because it has to be,” he said, “you cannot prep a show that is this complex [otherwise]. We're shooting two feature-size film units every day. That's the way that we keep on schedule to release the show every two years, otherwise, it would take a year just to film the show.”
Condal and Hess had been working on scripts for a third season while hoping for an HBO renewal. Preparation involved speeding up their usual process of polish, compressing two months of work into four weeks. Despite the pressure, they got done with scripts by January 2023 and full cast read-throughs and rewrites in February.
Challenges and perseverance
The strike disrupted the usual writing method that would involve constant fixes while shooting. However, the WGA strikes meant it was not possible. Condal explained, “It was very strange making a show for five months where we identified things as we went along and we said, 'We'll just deal with that later,' but thankfully, we had very polished scripts.”
Hess frequently moved between London and America where she found these places super weird. It felt out-of-body to her commuting from her work spot in London to marches in L.A.
This made the actors feel divided when the SAG strike happened because they were caught between their commitments to their jobs versus supporting picket lines.
Looking forward
Despite all these challenges, House of the Dragon season 2 is poised to mesmerize audiences. There is hope on Condal’s part that if HBO gets this series another season he will have an easier time.
"That there's not another once-in-a-generation event looming over the show, and that we can just happily make a season without external influences slowing us down," Candal wished.
House of the Dragon, season 2 is going to premiere on June 16 on HBOMax. The fans are eagerly waiting for the next chapter of this Game of Thrones prequel that was made with a lot of determination and resilience during the tough times in the industry.
ALSO READ: House Of The Dragon Season 2: What Are Dragonseeds To Be Seen In The Sequel? EXPLAINED
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