HBO Max has released a short teaser trailer of House of the Dragon which is a Game of Thrones prequel, containing the first real footage of the show. The show was announced two years ago after the ending of season 8 of Game of thrones. The show is based on George R. R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, a book that centers around the history of the Targaryen family and is set two centuries before the events of the A Song of Ice and Fire novels, which Game of Thrones was based on.

The House of the Dragon trailer doesn’t reveal anything about the show’s plot beats, but does showcase its impressive cast: actors including Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Sonoya Mizuno, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, and Olivia Cooke are all on board. As you’d expect, there appears to be a lot of sword fighting and references to dragons.

“Gods, kings, fire, and blood,” says Matt Smith’s character, Prince Daemon Targaryen, in a voiceover, as we see glimpses of the sea, fierce battles, and ominous shots of new characters. “Dreams didn’t make us kings, dragons did,” he finishes, as the one-minute trailer cuts to the logo and title treatment, which bears the Game of Thrones brand and reveals that the show will arrive in 2022.

House of the Dragon is just one of the several Game of Thrones spinoffs in the works. One of the other projects is focused on The Sea Snake which HBO described as  ‘the most famed nautical adventurer in the history of Westeros’. Another spin-off, written by Jane Goldman and starring Naomi Watts, didn’t proceed after the pilot stage.

The question, of course, is how many Game of Thrones fans will return for House of the Dragon considering how the former show’s final season proved to be, shall we say, divisive — not least because of the writing of a certain character with the surname “Targaryen.” HBO hasn’t given a specific release date other than to say that House of the Dragon will air in 2022, and it will of course be on the HBO Max streaming service.