House of the Dragon season two opened with a striking new credits sequence that instantly looks like an upgrade from the first season.
You’ll recall the original credits showed a trail of blood winding through King Viserys’ (Paddy Considine) model of Old Valyria. The intro was first revealed at the start of the show’s second episode, and some critics found it a bit lackluster.
The new credits, however, depict a medieval tapestry being woven into the story of the show — mainly, The Dance of the Dragons civil war — and depict previous moments from Targaryen history. The trail of blood is still present, but far more subtle, with the tapestry gradually getting stained. It’s all accompanied by some dynamic camerawork and a reworked Game of Thrones theme by Ramin Djawadi. As the season continues, the tapestry will evolve to include new iconic moments from past episodes.
The Hollywood Reporter asked co-creator and showrunner Ryan Condal why the credits were changed, and what most appealed to him about the new design.
“The amazing opening sequence for the original show put us in this place where — not that we were trying to top it, but that we were trying to continue the tradition of an evolving credit sequence that changes,” Condal said. “In the original show, the credits change as the show changes geography, showing you more and more of Westeros. We wanted to continue that with our title sequence, but as we got to the end of season one, we realized that the bloodlines and ancestry story we were telling that season — 20 years of time in season one — had been brought to an end because now the Targaryen ancestry is sort of set. We didn’t have much place to go.”
Continued Condal: “So we decided to go with radical change. Now that the page has turned and we’re at war, this is a living history and we want to depict that history in a visual way and give the fans new things to take apart and dive into. This really great titles company, called yU+co, came in and I pitched them the Bayeux Tapestry, which is this famous work of art that is both a piece of art and also the story of a very particular period in medieval history. A lot of what we know about medieval combat, about medieval dress and customs, comes from that sort of visual history.
“And those guys took it and ran with it and came back with this and I love it,” he said. “It gives us a lot of places to go. The story obviously starts on Valeria and and then at some point in the sequence, you’re like, ‘Oh, I remember that from from season one’ and you see how we’ve moved from Aegon the Conqueror’s time and pass through all the kings, and now we’re telling the story as we’re seeing it unfold and also seeing it literally being stitched into this tapestry.”
Here are the original opening credits for comparison. We’ll add the new credits as soon as they’re available.
House of the Dragon, which has been renewed for a third season, airs Sundays on HBO. Read a refresher on season one.
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