House of the Dragon boss hits back at claims second season 'divided' fans | TV & Radio | Showbiz & TV

HBO boss Casey Bloys has dismissed the notion that House of the Dragon's audience numbers are divided over the second season. Game of Thrones author George RR Martin had previously criticized certain aspects of the last season in a now-deleted blog post.

In a chat with Deadline, the outlet claimed that the House of the Dragon fanbase was “divided” over the course of the final season, presumably referring to the finale, which offered a taste of the epic war to come, but did not show any battle scenes from the original Fire and Blood.

When asked if “House of the Dragon” had a chance at next year’s Emmys after the alleged “split,” Bloys replied, seemingly joking, “Yeah, maybe a fan.”

“But no, the show went really, really well,” he added. “I expect it will run in the competition.”

Bloys then said of HBO’s possible award contenders: “I have high hopes for Penguin and Colin [Farrell] and Cristin [Milioti]. We have the return of White Lotus, we have the return of Last of Us, we have the return of Emmy winner Hacks. So I'm excited for next year.”

One aspect of the second season of House of the Dragon that writer Martin criticized was the change to the infamous “Blood and Cheese” scene.

In the scene of the first episode of the second season, the firstborn son of King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) is beheaded in his sleep due to a tragic misunderstanding.

Although the moment in the small scene still had a brutal impact, Martin seemed unhappy that certain elements had been removed from the source material.

Also missing from the scene is the youngest son of Aegon and Helaena (Phia Saban).

At the time, Martin expressed concern that the changes made to the show could potentially have a devastating butterfly effect on future seasons of the show, including a major event in Season 3 that we don't want to spoil here.

Nevertheless, many fans expressed their enthusiasm for the second season of the series and many said it was even better than the last one.

Martin's relationship with HBO also doesn't seem to be affected, as filming on the new Game of Thrones spin-off “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” has just been completed.

All episodes of seasons 1 and 2 of House of the Dragon can be streamed via Sky and NOW.