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Fro the moment they debuted, the opening credits for HBO’s massive fantasy hit, Game of Thrones, were always cause for conversation. The sequence subtly changed each week, highlighting different areas of Westeros and creating a weekly Easter egg hunt for the show’s many super fans.

While the main titles for the prequel, House of the Dragon, used the same famous music, the show’s opening sequence was entirely different – featuring blood sluicing through a series of channels and locks – and was widely rejected by fans for being confusing and uninspiring.

So for season two, showrunner Ryan Condal decided to take things in a different direction, he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Condal departed Elastic, which produced all of Game of Thrones’ opening credits as well as those for the first season of House of the Dragon, and brought in an agency that is well-known to the G.E.M.A. community: yU+co. yU+co is led by Garson Yu and known for producing opening sequences for such series as Apple TV Plus’ Hijack and For All Mankind as well as Disney Plus’ Ahsoka. 

RELATED: Yu+Co Takes Viewers Back to the Wild West for ‘Billy the Kid’

“Now that the page has turned and we’re at war, this is a living history and we want to depict that history in a visual way and give the fans new things to take apart and dive into. This really great titles company, called yU+co, came in and I pitched them the Bayeux Tapestry, which is this famous work of art that is both a piece of art and also the story of a very particular period in medieval history. A lot of what we know about medieval combat, about medieval dress and customs, comes from that sort of visual history,” Condal told THR.

“And those guys took it and ran with it and came back with this and I love it. It gives us a lot of places to go. The story obviously starts on Valyria and and then at some point in the sequence, you’re like, ‘Oh, I remember that from from season one’ and you see how we’ve moved from Aegon the Conqueror’s time and pass through all the kings, and now we’re telling the story as we’re seeing it unfold and also seeing it literally being stitched into this tapestry.”

Fans of Game of Thrones and book readers steeped in the lore will understand Condal’s references: the Targaryen family escaped a great civilization, Valyria, as it was destroyed by 14 exploding volcanoes. They and their family then came to Westeros where, led by Aegon the Conqueror and his two sister-wives, took over using their dragons as ultimate weapons. Since then, Westeros has been led by the dragon-riding Targaryens. 

‍House of the Dragon is the story of the civil war – referred to as the Dance of the Dragons –  that tore the ruling family apart, caused their powerful dragons to go extinct (or so they thought) and signaled the beginning of the Targaryens’ downfall, leading to the story of Game of Thrones. 

As season two of House of the Dragon unfolds, so shall the tapestry, adding more scenes of import.

‍House of the Dragon, which already has been renewed for season three, is airing Sunday nights on HBO and streams on Max. 

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