House of the Dragon showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal has promised a five-pack of new dragons for season two of HBO’s hit Game of Thrones spinoff.

Condal appeared at an FYC event on Tuesday alongside George R.R. Martin and stars of the series and revealed this white-hot little nugget for fans. “You’re going to meet five new dragons,” Condal said at the event in Los Angeles. He also revealed that season two was going to begin filming soon.

Joining Condal and Martin at the event were House of the Dragon stars Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), Paddy Considine (King Viserys/Targaryen), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Rhys Ifans (Otto Hightower), Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon), Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole), and Emily Carey (young Alicent Hightower). They screened the eighth episode of season one, “Lord of the Tides,” and Condal, Martin, and the stars joined Josh Gad for a panel discussion.

Martin told the crowd that “Lord of the Tides” was a favorite episode for him. “I thought it was really powerful. This guy [Condal] has an amazing writing staff,” Martin told the audience. “Because if you read my book Fire & Blood, which you should, it’s a fake history. So there’s a lot of the details that are in this that are absolutely wonderful and moving that are not in the book. They added stuff, and they added good stuff, which is important.”

Martin also joked about his long (long) simmering final installment in his “A Song of Ice and Fire” novel series, which he’s been working on for years. There was, undoubtedly, a tremendous amount of pressure on the House of the Dragon team to come up with a worthy follow-up to the record-smashing Game of Thrones, but Martin said it paled in comparison to what he’s dealing with on the novel side.

“The pressure of trying to follow the original series is nothing compared to the pressure of trying to finish the novel,” Martin joked. “That has me sleepless at nights. The show? That’s Ryan’s problem.”

For more on House of the Dragon, check out these stories:

House of the Dragon” Season 2 Coming to HBO in 2024

“House of the Dragon” Co-Creator & Co-Showrunner Ryan Condal on Season One & Beyond

“House of the Dragon” Costume Designer Jany Temime’s Deadly Elegance

Inside “The House of the Dragon” Episode 8: Farewell to the King

Featured image: Matt Smith in “House of the Dragon.” Photograph by Courtesy HBO