(Warning: This article features spoilers for House of the Dragon.)
House of the Dragon is only heating up.
After the Game of Thrones prequel's season one finale—which saw a particularly saddening death in Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy)'s young son Lucerys (Elliot Grihault)—co-creator Ryan Condal is making sure fans are bracing for even more violent ends going forward.
"Season one was setting the table for a very bloody feast to come," he told Entertainment Weekly in a feature published Oct. 24. "The reason that I wanted to really spend our time doing this is because I wanted everybody to understand who all of these characters were and the long history they had behind them—behind their fathers and their grandfathers—that led us to this point where they end up fighting a civil war against each other."
But now that all the main players have been introduced, Condal says season one is just the tipping point for the Targaryens' civil war.
"I'm really interested in picking up with all of those characters that we spent all of this time introducing, particularly Rhaenyra and Alicent's families, and seeing what happens now that we've flipped the chessboard over and spilled the pieces on the ground," he explained. "How do all those react? That's the story that we tell in season two and beyond."
During the Oct. 23 finale episode, Lucerys met his end after his uncle Aemond (Ewan Mitchell)'s dragon Vhagar went after Lucerys' Arrax, killing the other dragon and Rhaenyra's son in the process. Though Lucerys' death was clearly an accident, it cemented his mother's decision to fight for her crown, confirming the impending Dance of the Dragons.
The show has already been renewed for a season two, which Condal confirmed he's currently writing. And although the Targaryens have now been split into two camps battling over control of the Iron Throne, don't expect the next chapter to be a classic Game of Thrones situation.
"It's incredibly messy and complex and gray, and it's one family fighting each other," Condal teased. "This is not Starks vs. Lannisters. This is an extended family doing battle with one another. So it's harder to find those entrenched sides."
House of the Dragon season one is now streaming on HBO and HBO Max.