'House of the Dragon' Showrunner Ryan Condal Has Strong Message for Fans

Ryan Condal, the co-creator, showrunner, writer, and executive producer of the Game of Thronesprequel spin-off House of the Dragon, is giving his two cents. Those in the fandom will surely recall the divisiveness in its infancy, particularly with the pitting of the show's younger actors against their older counterparts.

Condal's comments appear in Variety's in-depth feature on Supergirl star Milly Alcock, who played young Rhaenyra Targaryen in seven episodes of House of the Dragon. Emma D'Arcy has been portraying adult Rhaenyra in the series since Season 1, Episode 6. (The third season is slated to debut this summer.)

The toxicity on platforms like Reddit and X (Twitter) not only made its way back to Alcock, which "broke" her heart, but Condal also caught wind of it. He said to Variety:

"It's an unfortunate by-product of the internet rage machine - we have so turned against ourselves in fandom. This kind of fandom used to be the happy place to go, where people who liked different things within the same world could just find common ground.

And I thought it was horrible! And it's horrible for all these young performers that did a great thing, and kind of did an impossible thing. Everybody should have just been celebrating the success and reception of that show. And people should find something else to do with their time, frankly."

In addition to D'Arcy, the massive main cast includes Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall, Matthew Needham, James Norton, Tom Bennett, Kieran Bew, Kurt Egyiawan, Freddie Fox, Clinton Liberty, Gayle Rankin, Abubakar Salim, Tom Cullen, Tommy Flanagan, Dan Fogler, Joplin Sibtain, and Barry Sloane.

House of the Dragon Season 3 premieres on Sunday, June 21, 2026, at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max. New episodes will air weekly until the season finale on Aug. 9.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on May 21, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published May 21, 2026 at 2:28 PM.