No, there's no new episode of House of the Dragon season 2 tonight (But there should be)

Despite it being the same show, it's difficult to compare the first two seasons of House of the Dragon. Though I had been referring to the first season as setup for the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war, after all that is said and done with the second season, we're not too far ahead in the story. That's not to say I disliked the second season — I actually enjoyed it overall. But I'm totally with the fans who feel unsatisfied with the season 2 finale, which feels much more like a penultimate episode than the final one.

This is us confirming that House of the Dragon season 2 came to a close one week ago, airing its finale on Aug. 4, meaning there is no new episode tonight, Aug. 11. If you're confused, we don't blame you. The final episode does not feel complete at all! What makes up the final moments of episode 8 is a literal montage of setup, and we won't be getting any payoff for likely two more years. And while I actually did like the episode on its own, given the fact that it's the season finale makes it incredibly underwhelming, and frankly disappointing.

Even though I knew there wouldn't be a big battle in the season 2 finale — it'd been reported by Deadline that a "major battle" was moved from season 2 to season 3, likely the Battle of the Gullet — I was still hoping for an epic ending. This is Game of Thrones, for goodness sake! There's so much more than just battles (though those are cool, too, of course). Sure, they gave us a cliffhanger, but with not enough happening this season, I'm fearful many viewers just won't stick around for season 3. And that's a shame.

As a huge Game of Thrones fan, I'll be sticking around and can't wait for the third season to premiere, though it likely won't be until 2026. Showrunner Ryan Condal has confirmed that they will begin filming the next installment in early 2025, and both production and post-production on a show of this scale take a long time to complete. It was about two years between seasons 1 and 2, and we expect the same timeline between 2 and 3.

What to watch while we wait for House of the Dragon season 3

So what do we do until House of the Dragon returns? Luckily for us TV lovers, there is an exciting slate of TV coming up in 2025 that will hopefully fill the void. There's even another Game of Thrones prequel coming out next year! See, we'll be okay. Check out our recommendations for 2025 so far, with more being announced pretty frequently:

• The Last of Us season 2
• Stranger Things season 5
• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
• The White Lotus season 3
• It: Welcome to Derry
• Wednesday season 2
• Dexter: Resurrection
• Anne Rice’s The Talamasca
• You season 5
• Andor season 2

These are just my personal recommendations, and there will be many more TV shows returning and premiering in 2025. Not to mention, there are still a handful of exciting shows to come in 2024, including The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power season 2, premiering on Aug. 29. Start making your watch lists and we'll start the countdown for House of the Dragon season 3 whenever we get a release date. Stay tuned for more updates on that.