When Does House of the Dragon Take Place in the Game of Thrones Timeline?

When House of the Dragon premiered on HBO back in 2022, it pulled off a feat many fans and critics believed was impossible: it revived interest in the Game of Thrones franchise. It also spawned its fair share of questions, not least of which was when exactly House of the Dragon takes place within the established Game of Thrones (GoT) timeline.

Of course, anyone familiar with George R.R. Martin’s original novel Fire & Blood can easily answer this question, as (a few major changes notwithstanding) House of the Dragon is broadly faithful to its source material. But for more casual viewers, keeping track of House Targaryen’s gradual decline – and how it aligns with the events of Game of Thrones – can be a bit of a struggle.

That’s why we’ve pulled together this handy guide to House of the Dragon‘s timeline, to set you straight on how the show fits within the Game of Thrones franchise’s wider continuity.

Related: Where Are the Smallfolk in House of the Dragon?

When Does House of the Dragon Take Place in the GoT Timeline?

House of the Dragon is a prequel to Game of Thrones, so the former takes place before the latter on their shared timeline. That’s the top-level answer – things get trickier once you dig into House of the Dragon on an episode-by-episode basis, because (unlike Game of Thrones) the show’s first season unfolds across close to three decades, with sizable narrative gaps along the way.

House of the Dragon Season 1’s first installment, “The Heirs of the Dragon,” opens with a prologue set 181 years prior to the birth of one of Game of Thrones‘ central characters, Princess Daenerys Targaryen. This is confirmed by an intertitle that promptly shifts House of the Dragon‘s story forward nine years, almost a decade into the reign of King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and 172 years before Daenerys arrived on the scene. While Emilia Clarke’s live-action Daenerys was aged up by at least four years from the 13-year-old girl originally described by Martin, the intertitle nevertheless positions House of the Dragon just under 200 years prior to the start of Game of Thrones.

So far, so simple. The overall timeline gets a bit murkier from here, though – especially if you miss key lines of dialogue in House of the Dragon‘s remaining nine episodes designed to clue us in on its internal chronology. Season 1’s plot leaps ahead six months in Episode 2, “The Rogue Prince,” and then three whole years in Episode 3, “Second of His Name,” followed by another gap of several months (exactly how many is unclear) between that episode and Episode 4, “King of the Narrow Sea.” By contrast, Episode 5, “We Light the Way,” picks up soon after Episode 4.

All told, the first five entries in House of the Dragon Season 1 nudge the spinoff series as many as four years closer to Game of Thrones‘ spot in the franchise’s timeline. After that, House of the Dragon makes its biggest time jump to date, in Episode 6, “The Princess and the Queen.”

Related: House of the Dragon Co-Showrunner Exits the Series

How Big Is House of the Dragon Season 1’s Mid-Season Time Jump?

How big of a time jump are we talking? Try 10 years. Fortunately, this narrative shift is pretty hard to miss, since it results in core cast members Milly Alcock (Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen) and Emily Carey (Alicent Hightower) being replaced by older performers Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke, respectively.

House of the Dragon Season 1’s history-hopping slows down for exactly one more episode, as the events of Episode 7, “Driftmark,” come hot on the heels of those depicted in “The Princess and the Queen.” The chronological hijinks then ramp up again in Episode 8, “The Lord of the Tides,” which skips House of the Dragon‘s narrative ahead six years, necessitating another wave of recastings to reflect the advancing age of Rhaenyra and Alicent’s respective broods.

This is the last significant time jump in House of the Dragon‘s first batch of episodes, with Episode 9, “The Green Council” and Episode 10, “The Black Council,” taking place more or less back-to-back. As such, House of the Dragon Season 1 wraps up roughly 152 years before Daenerys’ birth, which in turn places the first season’s finale in the ballpark of 170 or so years prior to the start of Game of Thrones proper.

Related: House of the Dragon Rewrites the Rules of the Game (of Thrones)

Will House of the Dragon Season 2 Also Include Time Jumps?

So, with around a century and a half of faux history still unaccounted for, will future seasons of House of the Dragon continue Season 1’s practice of spanning a multi-decade time frame? Not according to showrunner Ryan Condal, who insisted in an October 2022 interview that the Game of the Thrones prequel is “done” with time jumps and cast shake-ups. Instead, fans can apparently expect House of the Dragon Season 2 to play out in “real-time,” with any gaps in its narrative amounting to days and weeks, rather than years or even decades.

That said, in a separate interview that same month, Condal appeared to leave the door open for additional time jumps later in House of the Dragon‘s planned three to four-season run. Specifically, the showrunner noted that House of the Dragon “is the story of a Targaryen dynasty that marches on for 150 years after the events in the Season 1 finale” – a period of time that’s clearly too vast to dramatize at a rate of roughly one fictional year per season. However, Condal also hinted that House of the Dragon‘s final season won’t necessarily end with Daenerys’ birth and the other, associated events that comprise Game of Thrones‘ immediate backstory, potentially wrapping up several decades (if not an entire century) sooner.

What does all this mean for House of the Dragon‘s place within the overarching GoT timeline? You’ll have to tune in to the spinoff’s remaining seasons to find out!