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While viewers wait to return to the Seven Kingdoms this month with the June 21 premiere of House of the Dragon Season 3, the first reviews are now online and more positive than ever. The Game of Thrones prequel series continues to depict House Targaryen’s war of success as it leads into the notorious “Dance of the Dragons,” and it’s said to be the most action-packed installment yet.
Here’s what critics are saying about House of the Dragon Season 3:
Will fans be happy with its return?
House of the Dragon is still spectacle TV worth tuning in for.
— Therese Lacson, Collider
If you want spectacle, without much behind it, you’ll be pleased.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
In its third season, House of the Dragon remains engrossing and rewarding.
— Abe Friedtanzer, Awards Buzz
Those who tired of all the talking in Season 2 and crave wall-to-wall action will consider this chapter similarly slow.
— Lyvie Scott, Inverse
How does it compare to previous seasons?
House of the Dragon Season 3 picks up after what was a disappointing back half of Season 2 and returns the show to the highs we were accustomed to.
— Lissete Lanuza Sáenz, Fangirlish
Complaints of nothing happening last season have been remedied… There seems to have been a realization in the writers’ room not only of what made the show so interesting when it premiered in 2022.
— Kaiya Shunyata, RogerEbert.com
In many ways, [it’s] the same… still too packed, too narratively rushed and, as much as I’m certain passionate fans will disagree, the surplus of dragons and special effects has become somewhat anticlimactic.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
The show wants to be a chess match, not a battle epic. And that could make this the best chapter yet.
— Lyvie Scott, Inverse
(Photo by Ollie Upton/HBO)Does it kick things off with a bang?
House of the Dragon Season 3 wastes no time getting into the dark and gritty. The Battle of the Gullet is a massive, devastating spectacle, and it just gets wilder from there.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
One of several pivotal confrontations that will likely allay concerns about continued treading of water… the Battle of the Gullet is indeed spectacular.
— Alison Herman, Variety
It’s artificially huge and artificially bloody, and there are dragons doing dragon things…Oh, and in the first couple of episodes, there are deaths, big deaths, big meaningless deaths.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
Season 3 starts strong with blistering bloodshed, but it also affirms that its quiet cliffhanger in Season 2 wasn’t a mistake.
— Lyvie Scott, Inverse
Are there even better episodes later?
The third episode of the season is a standout… as Rhaenyra attempts to rein in power before losing her grasp.
— Kaiya Shunyata, RogerEbert.com
The third episode of the season and, to a lesser degree, the fourth were my favorite House of the Dragon episodes to date. Why? Because they were funnier, smarter, and a little more intimate in scale.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
(Photo by HBO)Is there plenty of dragon action?
It’s the people who make House of the Dragon worth enduring the predetermined devastation. The dragons are just the CGI flying lizards on top.
— Alison Herman, Variety
Just because you have the technological capacity to do a battle scene with four dragons and thousands of CG boats doesn’t mean that it wouldn’t be better with two dragons and, heaven forbid, some practical effects.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
The visual effects team has outdone themselves, giving these massive beasts a terrifying, majestic weight that makes them feel entirely real.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
Are there any other reasons to enjoy this season?
To my mind, the more exciting development in Season 3 is much more intimate in scope than hordes of troops descending into chaos… a rewarding return by House of the Dragon to its roots.
— Alison Herman, Variety
For all its emphasis on boisterous, capital-E events, House of the Dragon just works better when it’s a bunch of people talking in a room.
— Lyvie Scott, Inverse
There is an added layer of emotional weight here. The betrayal feels more personal now, and the wounds deeper.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
[The show] has suddenly remembered that it can be entertaining without filling the frame with dragons.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
(Photo by Theo Whiteman/HBO)How is the returning cast this season?
The actors remain absolutely brilliant, delivering nuanced performances that anchor the fantastical elements in raw human emotion.
— Tessa Smith, Mama’s Geeky
D’Arcy is at their best in this season, balancing the madness of a Targaryen and the hardened ambition of a woman claiming what has always rightly been hers.
— Therese Lacson, Collider
D’Arcy has never been better. Smith remains wonderfully hammy.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
Are there any notable newcomers?
The new season offers a bunch of new faces, because what the show needed was new characters, with James Norton the best of the lot as Ormund Hightower.
— Daniel Fienberg, The Hollywood Reporter
Without a doubt, James Norton’s Ormund Hightower. There’s a magnetism to his every moment on screen that makes it hard to look away, whether you are rooting for him or not.
— Lissete Lanuza Sáenz, Fangirlish
Is it starting to feel like the show is running its course?
House of the Dragon will [reportedly] end with Season 4, and it’s not quite a criticism to say that the first half of Season 3 left me ready for that conclusion.
— Alison Herman, Variety
With the third season underway and only one remaining, whatever flaws fans perceived within House of the Dragon might as well be features in its design.
— Lyvie Scott, Inverse
House of the Dragon: Season 3 premieres on HBO on June 21, 2026.
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