It's time for San Diego Comic-Con, and among the many TV shows expected to feature prominently is HBO Max's House of the Dragon , a spinoff prequel to HBO's hugely popular Game of Thrones . We had our share of disappointments with that series' later seasons (especially the series finale) like everyone else, but this new House of the Dragon trailer seems to capture the original tone and spirit that we loved so much about its predecessor.

As I've written previously , House of the Drago n is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and chronicles the beginning of the end of House Targaryen's reign. Those events culminated in a civil war and the extinction of the dragons—at least until Daenerys Targaryen came along two centuries later. Miguel Sapochnik—who filmed some of the most eye-popping, complicated battles on Game of Thrones —serves as co-showrunner with series co-creators Martin and Ryan J. Condal. Sapochnik directed the pilot and several other episodes.

Fire and Blood , a fictional history of the Targaryen kings written by George R.R. Martin, begins with Aegon I's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, thanks to the family's advanced weaponry in the form of dragons. This is followed by a period of relative peace before the inevitable succession crisis. The final two sections of Fire and Blood deal with the fallout of that crisis and serve as the primary source material for House of the Dragon .