George R.R. Martin’s universe of A Song of Ice and Fire is massive in scale and it has only grown larger over the years as Martin has crafted new stories within the universe adding further content to its history.
House of the Dragon will continue to add further context to the series, this time for those who watched the original series rather than read the books, and being a prequel there is a significant gap of time between the two.
Given this, those fans who are gearing up to watch House of the Dragon may be wondering how long before the original Game of Thrones TV series it is set. Fortunately, we have a pretty clear answer to this question both from the book and what was shown in the series premiere.
How long before Game Of Thrones is House of the Dragon set?
House of the Dragon takes place nine years into the reign of King Viserys I which is 172 years before the death of the Mad King and the birth of Daenerys Targaryen.
While in the books Daenerys is 13 years of age, it would seem that they made her slightly older for the show, somewhere around 16 or 17. With that being the case, House of the Dragon takes place about 186 years before the events of Game of Thrones season one.
This being the case, fans shouldn’t expect to see any of the characters we meet in the original series during this prequel show, but there are still a rare few that could have been around at the time.
Most if not all of the characters we meet in this series will be new to screen but many have been mentioned in passing during the original series. The story is taken from Fire & Blood a book written by George R.R. Martin as a history of the Targaryens dating back further than the new show and sharing more information after its events.
We’ll have to wait and see what callbacks show up during the season but to answer this question, the show takes place roughly 186 years before the original show. For further insight about this setting check out this article here.