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A big part of the Game of Thrones phenomenon that ended when the HBO series ended in 2019 was the weekly conversation culture — the recap blogs, YouTube breakdowns, Twitter theory threads, and podcast discussions — that made the Sunday night show into a weeklong event.
It’s all coming back and sooner than you think. On August 3, three weeks before prequel series House of the Dragon premieres, HBO Max is set to launch The Official Game of Thrones Podcast: House of the Dragon (Apple Podcasts, Spotify) to get you back into a Westeros state of mind.
“Fans will want to engage beyond the show,” says Michael Gluckstadt, HBO’s director of podcast content. “What you see on screen is just one part of the story. There’s the behind-the-scenes craft and the real-life history behind the series. It’ll be a starting point for engagement throughout the week.”
The House of the Dragon project will be a big part of HBO’s global engagement machine along with original content across YouTube channels and social platforms, a blitz of cast and crew appearances on magazine covers and talk shows, and the House of the Dragon: DracARys app (iPhone, Android) for raising your own Pokémon Live-style, augmented-reality dragon.
Head Back to Westeros a Few Weeks Early
The first three episodes of The Official Game of Thrones Podcast will be both a refresher on the major families and storylines and a preview of House of the Dragon with co-creator George R.R. Martin, series regulars Paddy Considine and Matt Smith, and some surprise celebrity fans. Weekly podcast episodes will include a recap, interviews, and an audience-engagement section.
After House of the Dragon, the podcast will evolve into a permanent home for all things Game of Thrones, including coverage of fan events and future originals.
Veteran film-and-TV talkers Jason Concepcion (Crooked Media’s X-Ray Vision) and Greta Johnsen (WBEZ’s Nerdette Recaps) will host the show, which is produced by HBO Max and iHeartMedia. Concepcion formerly co-hosted The Ringer’s Binge Mode: Game of Thrones podcast, an epic, funny, definitive, 80-hour primer on the series that’s now available (for free) exclusively on Spotify.
“People want to talk and hear about things they like,” Concepcion told me last week from San Diego, where he hosted the House of the Dragon Comic-Con panel. “TV podcasts are a way to stay in a world for a little bit longer and learn more about these shows.”
Companion podcasts have become a big part of why I enjoy sprawling, multi-storyline shows — the kinds of shows HBO and HBO Max do best — like Succession, Station Eleven, The Gilded Age, Winning Time, and Game of Thrones.
“Jason will pick up on things that a lot of viewers may not,” Johnsen says, “so you can get an inside scoop from a recap show that you wouldn’t necessarily get watching a show on your own.”
HBO Max Expanding Further Into Audio
HBO and HBO Max have made more than 40 podcasts over the last several years and have stepped up the volume in 2022:
- Companion podcasts. Winning Time (The Official Winning Time Podcast), The Gilded Age (The Official Gilded Age Podcast), The Peacemaker (Podly: The Peacemaker Podcast), We Own This City (We Own This City Podcast), The Staircase (The Staircase Podcast), Hacks (The Official Hacks Podcast), Julia (Dishing on Julia), And Just Like That… (And Just Like That…The Writers Room), and Issa Rae’s new comedy Rap Sh!t (Chat Shit).
- Look-back podcasts. The Wire (The Wire at 20) and True Blood (Truest Blood).
- Movie podcasts. HBO Max Movie Club Podcast covers original and catalog movies, and HBO Docs Club covers documentary films and docuseries.
- Full episodes. Real Time with Bill Maher includes the audio of full episodes in audio the day after they air on HBO and HBO Max plus a weekly bonus segment called “Overtime.”
(Spotify is the most popular podcast platform that’s available on both iOS and Android devices, so most of the podcast links in this story are to Spotify.)
Emmy-nominated Barry doesn’t have an official HBO podcast, but co-creator and star Bill Hader appeared after every episode this season for a chat with Sean Fennessey on The Ringer’s Prestige TV Podcast. When the point of the exercise is viewer engagement and driving awareness, that’s a win.
“We love it when people are talking about our shows,” says HBO Max’s Gluckstadt. “I listened to every episode of Bill Hader’s recaps on The Ringer, and we’ve worked with Fennessey on HBO projects.”
Look for HBO Max to Announce a New Scripted Podcast
A mandate to drive engagement and awareness has also influenced what forms various podcasts have taken. Podcasts like Station Eleven: The Podcast and The Official Watchmen podcast have been showrunner-driven, and HBO Max has experimented with celebrity hosts like Method Man on The Wire at 20 and Kara Swisher on HBO’s Succession Podcast.
HBO Max has also experimented with where podcasts are available. The company’s distribution deal with iHeartMedia drives a lot of promo impressions on iHeartMedia podcasts and local radio, and podcast for shows with very YouTube-friendly audiences have been produced as video-first projects.
“For video, we’re definitely experimenting with structure to see what audiences will react to,” says Becky Rho, HBO Max’s director of podcast production. “For Podly in particular, we had a lot of data suggesting that DC’s audience engages a lot on YouTube so we leaned into that with Ify Nwadiwe and Fiona Nova as hosts who are both great on video.”
HBO Max is also planning to announce a new scripted podcast series before the end of 2022. This would be the second original audio series following Batman: The Audio Series, which is exclusive to HBO Max. (You can listen the first two of ten half-hour episodes on most podcast platforms.)
“Scripted is definitely an area of interest,” says Hassan Chaudhry, HBO Max’s director of podcasting strategy, “Batman: The Audio Adventures last year was a big test for that. We’re working internally within our franchises to see if there’s something else to do as a scripted podcast.”
Scott Porch writes the “How to Watch TV” column for Decider. He produces podcasts about film and TV and is a contributing writer for The Daily Beast. You can follow him on Twitter @ScottPorch.
