It had been widely reported that the third season of House of the Dragon will open with the Battle of the Gullet, which is described in George R. R. Martin’s Fire & Blood as the largest naval battle ever to occur on Westeros.
In a press conference Reactor attended, showrunner Ryan Condal shared that—while logistical challenges caused the Battle to shift its place within the story—he felt it would be an exciting way to open season three. “I think it’s going to put people back on their heels in a good way because it just comes out so heavy and unexpectedly. But it also sets the tone for where we’re going with the season,” he said.
Condal was quick to add, however, that “lots of escalation” happens in the season after the battle. “It certainly changes the tone of the storytelling rhythm of House of the Dragon,” he added. “We are really playing for keeps now, and I don’t think anyone or anything is safe from here forward.”
The Battle of the Gullet, Condal said, was also an event he always saw as the midpoint of the show. He described it as the point of no return for the characters. “In Star Wars it’s when the Millennium Falcon gets sucked into the Death Star… that’s very much the feeling that the Gullet had in the reading of [Fire & Blood]. Even though plans changed for where and when it exactly landed in terms of the making of the show, it didn’t change anything about where we were headed. We’ve had a really good roadmap and a plan for a long time from what happens from there onto the end, and we’ve stuck to it, and are sticking to it.”
You can see the Battle of the Gullet firsthand when season three of House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max at 9 p.m. ET/PT on Sunday, June 21, 2026.
