House Of The Dragon co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik is bailing on season 2
Alan Taylor, a Game Of Thrones (and Sopranos, Lost, Deadwood, etc.) veteran will be stepping in to direct several episodes of the prequel's second season
Aux News Miguel Sapochnik
Well, that was fast: Game Of Thrones prequel House Of The Dragon has already had its first major behind-the-scenes shake-up, just two episodes into its run, with THR reporting that co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik—a long-time veteran of the franchise, who spent the last three years developing the spin-off alongside fellow showrunner Ryan Condal—is bailing on the series.
To be clear, everything about Sapochnik’s departure from House sounds pretty amicable, down to HBO offering him a new first-look deal for whatever project he develops next that presumably does not involve people staring at each other very hard while whispering about succession and dragons. Sapochnik also issued a strong note of support for his old Thrones pal Alan Taylor, who’ll be joining the series as an executive producer and director on its second season.
The vibe, really, seems to simply be that Sapochnik—who directed the House Of The Dragon pilot, as well as several other episodes in its first season—has just reached the end of what sounds like a very tiring process of getting people to give two shits about Game Of Thrones again. “I am so proud of what we accomplished with season 1,” he said in a statement, “And overjoyed by the enthusiastic reaction of our viewers. It was incredibly tough to decide to move on, but I know that it is the right choice for me, personally and professionally.”
THR notes that, per an earlier interview, Sapochnik actually waffled pretty hard about coming back for House; he never outright came out and said that it was because people were, you know, not nice about Thrones’ last season—for which he directed two episodes, including the Battle Of Winterfell sequence from “The Long Night”—but it feels like an easy thing to infer. (He was eventually convinced after attending a Game Of Thrones fan experience concert and seeing that love for the series was still in evidence.)
Taylor, meanwhile, has had his fingerprints all over the rise of prestige TV over the last two decades, with credits that include The Sopranos, Lost, Sex And The City, Mad Men, Deadwood, and, of course, Thrones, where he directed a decent chunk of the show’s second season. He issued his own statement about the move—it’s a real avalanche of TV guys saying nice stuff about each other over there at the moment, apparently—noting that, “It’s a pleasure and an honor to be back at HBO, immersing myself in the world of the Targaryens. I look forward to working closely with Ryan as House Of The Dragon grows into its second season. Ryan, Miguel and George [R.R. Martin] have launched an extraordinary story, in a rich and fascinating world. Returning to Westeros will be a huge undertaking and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
15 Comments
Meh.
Having a director as co-showrunner with a writer is rather unusual. I suppose Luck had that with Michael Mann & David Milch.
much more common these days since first season of True Detective
True Detective had a single showrunner, even while the first season had a single director (unlike the first season of House of the Dragon). The Knick was entirely directed by Soderbergh, but he wasn’t the showrunner.
I really like most of Alan Taylor’s work. I thought Terminator: Genisys was a very good film (with Emilia Clarke horribly miscast) ruined by the marketing spoilers. As a massive Sopranos fan, it pains me to say that The Many Saints of Newark was .. weak, but his directing was very good. And he touched many of the best episodes of some of the best shows in recent times.I hope he doesn’t fuck this up lol
Genisys’ problem was that the entire crux of the film’s plot relies on a single line said in the third minute of the film that everyone immediately forgets.
it pains me to say that The Many Saints of Newark was .. weak, but his directing was very good
Yeah, I don’t think the directing was the issue with the Rise of Tony Soprano.
This is going to come off very harsh, but it’s not a big loss.Sapochnik’s big thing in GoT was doing the big battle episodes, which he was certainly proficient at. HotD feels like Condal’s show first and foremost and having him in charge of the story is the most important thing. Sapochnik will set the tone for the production and the action scenes in this season, and I can see other competent directors being able to follow his lead.
Sapochnik was incredibly overrated as a director. His episodes were generally badly paced and badly lit, and I never got a great sense of geography from him. I think people remember a few big epic shots from those episodes but otherwise I found him very uninteresting. Not sure why he became the dude for GoT.
The last two episodes he did definitely weren’t great, but from what I understand that’s probably from production falling apart. Hardhome and The Winds of Winter (especially the sept explosion sequence) are still very impressive directorial feats.
Why do these showrunner types always look like they just ate a baby?
The pressure from the executive and audience “critical” opinion will do that to you.
It’s weird to me that they’re their own sort of celebrity now. I wonder if they’re contractually obligated to, ehh, engage with all of it (conventions, social media, press statements, etc.) or if they could just choose to be regular humans if they wanted to.I blame Chris Carter, really
i LOVE alan taylor, so i forget he also directed THOR 2.
If he worked on Deadwood, that’s good enough for me to not worry about it at all…