Deleted HoTD Scenes Will Be Released After All, According to George Martin
The first season of HBO's House of the Dragon may be not perfect, but it was the biggest show of 2022, no question.
House of the Dragon takes place almost 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and spans roughly 20 years. Season 1 covers the origins of The Dance of Dragons, the civil war, which wrecked Westeros and the Targaryen dynasty, while the following seasons will cover the war itself.
But even Season 1 is enjoying tremendous popularity. Unsurprisingly, HBO and Warner Brothers were quick to announce release of House of the Dragon on physical media (4k Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and DVD) for December 20. And now we have some information on what to expect from the special features, provided by George R. R. Martin, the franchise's creator, himself.
In his recent interview with Penguin Random House, Martin said that there were many scenes in Season 1 that didn't make the final cut (of course there were). These scenes might be added back in with a blooper reel on the Blu-ray release.
Of course, Martin does not determine what would make it onto the physical release, and what would not, so it's entirely possible that those items end up not included. But bloopers and deleted scenes are very common with Blu-ray releases, and we already know that the physical release will have over an hour's worth of special features including two never before seen featurettes. So it was a pretty safe bet that we'll get to see those deleted scenes even before Martin's interview, and now it is almost a certainty.
Seeing them will be particularly interesting, as despite using 10 hour-long episodes to cover only a part of a relatively short story, House of the Dragon had omitted some moments from Martin's books. And while generally well-received, the series was criticized for certain additions it made to the source. So, watching deleted scenes would not only be entertaining in itself, but could allow us to make some educated guesses about showrunners' judgment.
Scenes that they have deemed unworthy of release could indicate whether House of the Dragon is only going to become better, or whether it is going to head towards a disappointing conclusion, like that of Game of Thrones.