House of the Dragon season 3: Release date speculation, cast and plot news ...Middle East

*Warning: Spoilers ahead for all episodes of House of the Dragon season 2.*

House of the Dragon season 3 is still far enough away to make us long for it with all our being. That said, there are still plenty of much-appreciated updates regarding the show circling, with new information being released about production, scripts, new characters, and more. For example, the latest is that House of the Dragon's third season is officially in production, with the cast having recently received a new batch of scripts for some of the episodes.

In other news, new cast announcements have arrived. According to Variety, Happy Valley star James Norton is reportedly set to play key character Ormund Hightower. Ormund is the nephew of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and will be seen leading a march on King's Landing against Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) as the war continues to heat up.

The finale of season 2 revealed a major twist typical of Game of Thrones, with Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen and Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) reuniting after so long. It almost seemed as if the two would reconcile and bring the whole feud to an end, but instead, the second season concluded with all sides preparing for battle.

With so much explosive action and heartbreaking scenes promised in the next two seasons of House of the Dragon, many fans are wondering when we can expect season 3 to arrive on our screens. Read on for everything you need to know about House of the Dragon season 3 and the future of the Targaryen dynasty and, most importantly, make sure to check back regularly as we'll be updating this guide with more information as it gets revealed.

House of the Dragon season 3 release date speculation

While there's no confirmed release date for Season 3 at this early stage, we estimate an early to mid-2026 release date.

We do know that Season 3 is currently being written and production is underway, having started back in March 2025.

In February 2025, stars Matt Smith and Fabien Frankel said during a panel at MegaCon in Florida that they had received scripts for the fourth, fifth, and sixth episodes of season 3. This means that everything seems to be progressing in line with the planned schedule.

As any Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon fan knows, the scale of the HBO series is absolutely epic, and it takes a long time to put together.

House of the Dragon was renewed for Season 3 in June 2024, before Season 2 had even been released, demonstrating tremendous faith in the Thrones spin-off.

Who will be in the cast of House of the Dragon season 3?

Currently, we'd expect the following cast members to return for House of the Dragon season 3.

In terms of new arrivals, it's been revealed that James Norton will be joining the cast as Ormund Hightower, and we can expect some other new additions to be announced in due course.

One character we do know for sure that we're going to meet in season 3 is the long-awaited Daeron Targaryen, Aegon and Aemond's brother! Asked in a recent press conference whether we would finally meet him, Condal confirmed with a "yes" – although the actor to play him has not yet been cast, to our knowledge.

He also referenced the Targaryen brothers when speaking about Helaena's storyline, adding: "The decision to expand Helaena’s character was that we, were fascinated by Alicent’s family and Aegon and Aemond, and certainly at some point in the story, even Daeron – the beloved, anticipated Daeron – get a lot of the screen time and the storytelling time because they're the males, they're the dragon riding warriors.

"But Helena was always fascinating to us because she was a bit of a tabula rasa, as described in the book."

Elsewhere, while many viewers were excited at the prospect of seeing Nettles, a fan-favourite character from the books who claims the dragon Sheepstealer, appear in season 2. For now, her story has been conflated with that of Princess Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell), which has left many fans disappointed. However, during a press conference, Condal hinted that we might still see her in future.

When asked about whether Nettles has been fully written out of the show, he responded: "I think that's a ‘Please stay tuned and keep watching the story.’ I will say that we love Rhaena as a character, and we've really done a lot of legwork to set her up from the beginning as somebody in this Targaryen household who does not have a dragon."

He added: "I think the Rhaena story, as we're seeing it unfold, is potentially one of those interesting interpretations that we have to offer. And I would just say that we don't do any stuff lightly or without thought. Many of these things we've planned many seasons in advance. So I would just say, you know, buckle up and take the ride with us. And hopefully you like the destination it's going to."

Meanwhile, in the finale episode, we met a new character in the form of a gender-swapped Admiral Lohar, played by Abigail Thorne. We'd certainly expect her and other characters introduced this season to return for more.

As for returning faces, we'd certainly expect most of the Targaryen clan to be back in business as we head towards season 3. The final episodes of the season have also placed greater emphasis on the dragonseeds, or the Targaryen bastards, including Hugh Hammer (Kieran Bew) and Ulf White (Tom Bennett), so we'd expect them to take on a bigger role going forward.

In the finale episode, we also saw Joshua Ben-Tovim appear in a vision to Daemon Targaryen as Ser Brynden Rivers, AKA Lord Bloodraven. Could we see more from him in the future?

One character we're not expecting to see back, however, is the Queen Who Never Was, Rhaenys Targaryen (played by Eve Best).

In a shocking and brutal episode 4, the beloved character was killed off in a fiery clash with Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), who also left his own brother, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), badly wounded.

While fans were also excited to see the appearance of Blood and Cheese, played by Sam C Wilson and Mark Stobbart, we're certainly not expecting to see them back for any more either. Similarly, episode 1 saw the brutal death of a young Jaehaerys Targaryen, the eldest son of Aegon Targaryen.

That said, we're also not ruling out flashback scenes – especially after the shock returns of season 2.

Fans were stunned to see the return of Milly Alcock as young Rhaenyra and Paddy Considine as the late King Viserys as part of Daemon Targaryen's visions. Could old cast members be back for more?

We could also see the arrival of even more Targaryen children, as some of them haven't been born yet, including Aegon's younger son, Prince Maelor, who, in the book, had a role to play in the Blood and Cheese storyline.

In the show, however, Condal reasoned that, due to shortened timelines, Maelor couldn't be born yet.

Condal explained to RadioTimes.com: "In our writing of season 1, we had to compress time a bit to get through 30 years of history, essentially, in what ended up being 20 years, just so that we didn't have to recast every character.

"I think as time marches on longer and longer, it becomes more challenging to tell all that story in one season, and season 1 was a challenge in and of itself.

"So, essentially, we made 30 years happen in 20 years, and that just meant some of the youngest kids in the story weren't around, or were younger than they are in the books – Rhaenyra and Daemon's children, for one, and then certainly Helaena and Aegon. Maelor is not yet in the narrative in this, in the story, so that was a change."

That might suggest the new generation of Targaryen children is on the way in season 3, but take this with a pinch of salt until it's officially confirmed.

What could House of the Dragon season 3 be about?

We don't know all the specifics of the plot of season 3 just yet, but we'd expect it to continue to follow Martin's book Fire & Blood – albeit with some deviations along the way, as we've seen in season 1 and season 2.

However, there are certain book events we're expecting to see. Look away now if you don't want to see any book spoilers!

Speaking in the post-episode featurette, Condal said: “While this season was very much about the fits and starts of an early medieval war, season three is clearly going to be about total war."

We're expecting to see the highly anticipated Battle of the Gullet, a brutal and bloody sea battle that many fans had been anticipating in season 2. Asked about why he postponed showing it, Condal said it's down to balancing the number of big events we have in each season.

He said: "We were trying to give the Gullet, which is maybe the second most anticipated event of Fire and Blood, the time and the space that it deserves. And obviously, as anybody that's seen the finale knows, we're building to that, that event will happen very shortly in terms of the storytelling of House of the Dragon."

“Based on what we know now, it should be the biggest thing to date that we’ve pulled off. And we just wanted to have the time, the space to do that at a level that is going to excite and satisfy the fans and in the way it’s deserved.”

Judging from where we leave off in season 2, we're also expecting Rhaenyra to take her rightful place on the Iron Throne in season 3.

Showrunner Ryan Condal previously told RadioTimes.com of future seasons: "There's a history that marches on for decades after this. So it's not about ending the Targaryen history. It's just finding the place to close the curtain on this particular time…

"We're trying to find the satisfying television ending or the conclusion where we can leave everybody knowing that time marches on from here, but we've brought this dramatic story to a close.

"So, I think that's become very clear as we've just gotten farther down the timeline. But I'm not ready to yet talk about how many episodes or seasons are left.

"But I think the nice thing is we know where we're going, we have all the material that we need, because the book is written and hopefully we can bring this to a satisfying conclusion."

Meanwhile, Emma D'Arcy told IGN: "Oh my God, by the end of season 2, I was a f**king shell of myself.

"I was a husk. I could not form a sentence. I was so tired. I need to implement some way of getting through season 3, if there’s a season 3, to really harness as much energy as possible. It is a behemoth."

How many episodes could House of the Dragon season 3 consist of?

House of the Dragon season 3 does not yet have a confirmed episode count, but, from Condal's recent comments, we'd expect it to have eight episodes.

When asked about season 3's episode count at a press conference, the showrunner said: "Without saying anything, because I haven't had discussions with HBO about it, I would just anticipate the cadence of the show from a dramatic storytelling perspective will continue to be the same from season 2 on."

Season 1 consisted of 10 episodes, while season 2 consisted of eight episodes.

In terms of episode length, we'd again expect the episodes to range from 50 to 70 minutes, depending on how much needs to be covered in one particular episode.

Season 2 episode 8 was the show's longest episode yet, with the finale clocking in at 73 minutes.

How many seasons of House of the Dragon will there be?

House of the Dragon will have four seasons before concluding, as Condal mentioned at the recent press conference.

That means we're currently halfway through the show's run.

Is there a trailer for House of the Dragon season 3?

Not yet! We'll keep this page updated with any footage that comes our way.

In the meantime, why not check out what the stars had to say about season 2?

House of the Dragon season 2 airs on Sky Atlantic and NOW in the UK – find out more about how to sign up for Sky TV.

Check out more of our Fantasy coverage or visit our TV Guide to see what's on tonight. For more from the biggest stars in TV, listen to The Radio Times Podcast.

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