Yes, something was off in House of the Dragon's season 2 finale, because the crew wanted to give an anticipated book moment 'the space that it deserves'

If you're one of the House of the Dragon fans that have come away a bit underwhelmed by the season 2 finale, that's probably because the crew is keeping something big for season 3.

Not every season finale is going to be a belter, and for some fans, that was the case for House of the Dragon season 2. I wouldn't worry about the show too much, as it will be getting two more seasons (with season 4 being the last one), but still, it's understandable if you were wondering where a particular moment you might have been expecting ended up. Showrunner Ryan Condal recently spoke at a press conference to explain where The Battle of the Gullet is, a highly anticipated moment from the books, and mostly it sounds like the reason for its absence is a budgetary one.

"One of the challenges of making television at any scale [is] nobody has infinite time and resources," Condal explained. "When you’re a showrunner, you’re always in the position of having to balance storytelling and the resources that you have to tell that story… We wanted to rebalance the story in such a way that we had three great seasons of television [after season one] to round out and tell this story. When you’re trying to mount the show, which requires a tremendous amount of resources, construction, armour, costumes, visual effects… we are trying to give The Gullet - which is arguably the second most anticipated action event of Fire & Blood - trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves."

It's a pretty reasonable explanation, even if you're still left feeling a bit disappointed you're going to have to wait (presumably) at least two more years until you get to see the anticipated battle in live-action. Production on season 3 is set to kick off early 2025, but luckily there are other spin-offs on the way like A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is set to air sometime in 2025.