House of the Dragon Showrunners on Sex and Violence

The “House of the Dragon” showrunners are clarifying their viral feedback about the new “Game of Thrones” spin-off and how a lot intercourse and violence viewers can count on when the present premieres.

Condal and Sapochnik advised the Hollywood Reporter “House of the Dragon” would “pull again” from the amount of sex scenes in “Game of Thrones,” however would nonetheless present sexual assault. Sapochnik advised the outlet, “If something, we will shine a light-weight on that facet. You cannot ignore the violence that was perpetrated on girls by males in that point. It should not be downplayed and it should not be glorified.” Many followers on-line had been upset, given the criticism “Game of Thrones” obtained for typically exhibiting lengthy, brutal scenes of sexual violence. The collection additionally usually used “sexposition” — having characters ship lengthy exposition over photographs of individuals, usually unnamed girls, having intercourse.

In a roundtable interview with POPSUGAR and different shops, Condal and Sapochnik handle these feedback, clarifying how the collection handles each intercourse and violence.

“I believe for no matter motive, I believe one thing was incorrectly reported or bought misconstrued,” Condal says. “We’re very conscious of the time that we dwell in. We’re very conscious of how completely different the world is now versus 10 years in the past when the authentic present premiered.”

Condal additionally thinks the subject material of “House of the Dragon” lends itself to a unique strategy to those sorts of scenes. “This is a a lot completely different story,” he says, calling it “an intimate household story.” “You’re coping with a bunch of characters who all dwell below the similar roof. So these tales are essentially going to be completely different.” Condal mentioned that when the present’s plot hits wartime, issues is perhaps completely different as a result of there’s “sexual violence that follows battle.”

“It’s Game of Thrones. There is intercourse and violence as half of the story,” Condal says. “The specific means that we have approached it on this time is ensuring that every time you are going to have any type of . . . intercourse or violence on display, that there is a compelling story motive for it, and that it is a story that must be advised. It’s not being performed gratuitously or to titillate or something like that.” Condal says he is “assured” about the means they filmed these scenes in season one, and added that they’d an intimacy coordinator on set. They made positive all the actors rehearsed these scenes upfront and “knew what they had been entering into.” “And I believe they felt good about it as a result of they knew as actors that they had been performing a narrative and not doing intercourse for intercourse’s sake,” Condal says.

Sapochnik additionally clarifies his feedback, explaining, “I believe one ought to be unflinching in relation to portraying sexual violence, not essentially in the means that you simply painting it, however in the subject material itself.”

Sapochnik says it is vital to him and Condal to be “accountable companions” to the individuals on- and off-screen who they’re working with. He thinks the trade is “taking observe” of the means issues want to vary with on-screen intercourse and on-screen sexual violence. Sapochnik says there is perhaps a “overcorrection” occurring, however that it is a “pure half” of discovering the “proper area.”

“It’s actually vital to us that we be half of the resolution there and not half of the downside,” he provides. “So that is how we have been approaching it. I do not even suppose now we have any sexual violence in our season.”

Sign up for HBO Max now to observe “House of the Dragon” when it premieres on Aug. 21, 2022.