This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 8. This thread is for all of you who are following the show as scheduled. Make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 7. This thread is for all of you who are following the show as scheduled. Make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 6. This thread is for all of you who are following the show as scheduled. Make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 5. This thread is for all of you who are following the show as scheduled. Make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 4. This thread is for all of you who are following the show as scheduled (which still does not count me!). Make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 3. I still haven't watched any episodes yet from this season, but this thread is for all of you who are following the show as scheduled. Make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 2. As we did with previous season, make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

This is Tower of the Hand's official open thread for House of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 1: "A Son for a Son." As we did with previous season, make your last minute predictions here; share what's going on in your mind as you're watching the episode unfold; then give us your immediate reactions to it after it's over. Enjoy the show!

At today's Warner Bros. Discovery presentation, HBO officially announced a new Game of Thrones prequel series based on George R. R. Martin's The Hedge Knight. Here are the early details, according to Variety:

The series is currently titled “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.” The official logline states, “A century before the events of ‘Game of Thrones,’ two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.”

Martin will serve as writer and executive producer, as will Ira Parker, who was a co-executive producer on Season 1 of “House of the Dragon.” “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon” vets Ryan Condal and Vince Gerardis will serve as executive producers.

There are no cast details nor a production timeline to report at this time, though that's not surprising. For comparison's sake, it took about a year from the announcement of House of the Dragon before Paddy Considine was revealed as the first major cast member to join the show. It took over two-and-a-half years from HotD's announcement before the first episode aired in 2022.

As far as the other Game of Thrones properties still in development, Variety reported a few weeks ago that HBO is keen to start development on an Aegon's Conquest project, in some form. However and whenever we get these new shows, we now know that they'll be streaming on Max, which was also announced today as the successor to the HBO Max app.

Update: GRRM has confirmed the news and filled in a few more details about the new show. A full season — not just a pilot — has been ordered by HBO, which makes this announcement more like House of the Dragon than the failed Bloodmoon. Ira Parker (one of HotD's writers) has already written the pilot script; he and his team are currently writing the rest of the season, which is likely to span six episodes and cover the plot of the first Dunk and Egg story.

GRRM also addresses the biggest concern about a Hedge Knight adaptation: the fact that the rest of the books aren't written yet. I'll quote GRRM in full here, because there are a lot of interesting reveals here, plus a quick mention of The Winds of Winter:

If THE HEDGE KNIGHT turns out as well as we hope it will, our hope would be to go on and adapt THE SWORN SWORD and THE MYSTERY KNIGHT as well. That will take a few years. Then comes the hard part. Before we reach the end of the published stories, I will need to find time to write all the other Dunk & Egg novellas that I have planned. There are… gulp… more of them than I had once thought. There’s “The Village Hero” and the Winterfell story, the one with the She-Wolves, and maybe I need to write that Dornish adventure too to slip in between “The Hedge Knight” and “The Sworn Sword,” and after that there are… ah… more. I just need to finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, and then do either A DREAM OF SPRING or volume two of FIRE & BLOOD, and slip in a new Dunk & Egg between each of those in my copious spare time… and that will keep me ahead of Ira and his merry crew… for a few more years.

If it's March, it must be Madness! The NCAA tournament brackets are (mostly) set and it's up to us to predict which team will be the last one standing. If you're interested in filling out a bracket and squaring off against fellow Tower of the Hand members, please join us in the Annual Scorchiebeanie Memorial Bracket Clash. There's no money involved — just bragging rights. Everyone is invited to participate; leave a comment here and we'll send you a proper invitation if you haven't already received one. Remember that brackets must be finalized before Thursday, noon ET.

Consider this the official thread for this year's NCAA Tournament. Feel free to discuss your brackets, the games, and all things March Madness here.