'House of the Dragon' dropped its first teaser trailer earlier this month and there is already a lot of expectation growing for the new series.
Sapochnik, who will also be directing multiple episodes of the show, made clear that breaking out from under 'Game of Thrones' shadow will take time.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter he said, "House of the Dragon has its own tone that will evolve and emerge over the course of the show. But first, it’s very important to pay respects and homage to the original series, which was pretty ground-breaking."
"We’re standing on the shoulders of that show and we’re only here because of that show. So the most important thing for us to do is to respect that show as much as possible and try and complement it rather than reinvent it."
Sapochnik was influential during much of the original 'Game of Thrones' series run. He directed fan-favourite episodes such as 'Battle of the Bastards', 'Winds of Winter' and 'Hardhome'.
"I was involved in making the original show, so I feel like that’s been useful. Like, I’m not arriving going, ‘Let’s change everything! Let’s do a different colour palette!’ No, I quite like the colour palette."
Noting the immense success of the original series, Sapochnik was clear in how he's handling his expectations.
"We’ll be lucky if we ever come close to what the original show was, so we’re just putting our heads down and getting on with it and hoping what we come up with is worthy of having a Game of Thrones title.”
Series casting trickled out late 2020 and early 2021. The main cast includes Matt Smith, Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Emma D'arcy and Rhys Ifans.
The plot centres around the Targaryen family's reign over Westeros, set around 200 years before the events of 'Game of Thrones'.
Multiple other spin-offs are in the works too, including an animated series, so expect 'House of the Dragon' to be just the first of many more adventures within the Game of Thrones universe.
