With the release of the first teaser trailer for HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, it’s obvious by the reaction on Twitter that many GoT fans are still sore two years after HBO did them dirty with a disappointing final season. Many have expressed an ambivalent reaction to the new saga set 200 years before the original series, as Express pointed out. Not that it really needs pointing out, but spoilers for Game of Thrones season 8 are present beyond this point.
The now-universally detested final season saw the likes of many fan-favorite heroes or love-to-hate villains being unceremoniously killed off in underwhelming circumstances, such as Lena Headey’s conniving Cersei Lannister, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau’s Jaime Lannister and Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys Targaryen. And the wrap-up for Kit Harington’s Jon Snow and the Stark family felt like a cheap bait and switch, with Isaac Hempstead Wright’s Bran Stark swooping in to claim the Iron Throne, despite seemingly being sidelined as a character for much of the series.
Many fans have called for a redo of the entire season, which notoriously featured a Starbucks coffee cup at one point, despite the medieval-like setting. For some, it seems, the letdown of that final season was just too much to bear when considering making a return to the Seven Kingdoms.
Cory Lewis warns HBO, “you owe it to us,” should they fumble the prequel as well.
However, despite many negative reactions, there were some positives as well.
Some folks are saying they can’t help but get sucked back into the world, despite still being let down by season 8.
We’ll just have to see if the spinoff holds up to fan expectations—or lack thereof—when House of the Dragon comes to HBO sometime in 2022.