House of the Dragon season 3's opening battle is "arguably the craziest episode of television ever made" and HotD's Helm's Deep, says showrunner

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House of the Dragon season 3 is less than a month away, and it's set to open with an all-timer Game of Thrones episode in The Battle of the Gullet, if showrunner Ryan Condal is to be believed.

Speaking the Entertainment Weekly, the House of the Dragon showrunner didn't hold back when describing the season 3 premiere noting that, in terms of execution, it's "arguably the craziest episode of television ever made." For an extended universe that has previously brought the likes of the Battle of the Bastards, Hardhome and The Watchers on the Wall to the screen, that's fighting talk!

Following a truncated second season caused by the 2023 writers' strike, House of the Dragon season 3 is set to open with a battle that's been building since the show's inception. "The series this time around starts at 60 miles an hour," says Emma D'Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra Targaryen. "We're finally watching a war that has been building for two seasons." It's a sentiment echoed by Aemond actor Ewan Mitchell. "It's all-out war… It's just a blitz straight out of the gate."

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As book readers already know, The Battle of the Gullet is set to be a major turning point in the civil war between Team Green and Team Black. An all-out battle at sea, that means "dragons and ships and multiple theaters of conflict," says Condal. The Battle of the Gullet is so central to the history of Westeros, in fact, that Condal claims "to try to tell this story without doing the Gullet would be trying to film Lord of the Rings without doing the Battle of Helm's Deep."

Some potentially war-ending moves are about to be made in House of the Dragon season 3, as glimpsed in the moody House of the Dragon season 3 trailer. For starters, Rhaenyra has her sights set on King's Landing after her covert meeting with Alicent in season 2, while Aemond and his monstrous dragon Vhagar have caught wind that Damon is at Harenhaal. It would seem that the deck is stacked in favor of Team Green after Rhaenyra's dragonseeds bore fruit in season 2, but everyone knows that the tide of war can turn in an instant in Westeros.

House of the Dragon season 3 arrives on HBO on June 21. In the meantime, check out our guide to the rest of the best new TV shows on the way in 2026 and beyond.

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Jordan FarleyManaging Editor, Entertainment

I'm the Managing Editor, Entertainment here at GamesRadar+, overseeing the site's film and TV coverage. In a previous life as a print dinosaur, I was the Deputy Editor of Total Film magazine, and the news editor at SFX magazine. Fun fact: two of my favourite films released on the same day - Blade Runner and The Thing.

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