The opening episode’s run time towards the third season of HBO’s highly acclaimed series, House of the Dragon has just been revealed. According to Screenrant, the upcoming season will open up with the Battle of the Gullet, which according back to the original series was the bloodiest naval battle in Westeros history, this is one conflict that many fans and reads of George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood have been eagerly awaiting. The battle in question was described as a major turning point in the Targaryen civil war, known as dance of the dragons. The production team is ensuring they have the necessary time to make the final result is completely faithful to the book, while also adding their own flair into it.
Reported by Screenrant, House of the Dragon season, episode one is scheduled to make its debut on June 21 and will be airing from 9:00 p.m. to 10:12 p.m. ET, which the total runtime comes out to 72 minutes, which includes the ending credits and the “Inside the Episode” segments seen in most of the HBO series episodes. As of right now, this places the first episode of season three as the third-longest within the entire series, behind the season two finale at 84 minutes and season two, episode six, “Smallfolk” at 77 minutes.
Stated by Screenrant, the third season will have shorter battle episodes compared to previous ones in Game of Thrones which consists of season eight, episode three “The Long Night” at 82 minutes, but will be longer than others which are season four, episode nine, “The Watchers on the Wall” at 50 minutes. This extended runtime reflects HBO’s eagerness to expand the story’s scope while delivering a blockbuster narrative filled with twists—underscoring just how high the stakes have become.
This is not the series final journey as it has already been renewed for a fourth and final season. All previous seasons of House of the Dragon are available to stream on HBO Max.