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House of the Dragon episode 2 finally gives us an opening sequence

Does it match the epic, unskippable scale of Game of Thrones’ title sequence?

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Viserys and Alicent sitting in chairs with a massive model of Old Valyria on the table between them Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO

What would Game of Thrones be without its theme song? Composed by Ramin Djawadi, the song has become so indelible you could play it on almost anything and the vibe is still there. Djawadi was told to avoid flutes, pianos, and violins (since they have been featured so often in fantasy themes), and so instead he made an absolute banger out of cellos playing a minor key, making an animated map feel totally epic and surprisingly versatile.

So it makes sense that House of the Dragon would not reinvent the wheel there with their own title sequence. While co-creators Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik said they wanted to avoid a title sequence in the pilot, episode 2 marks the debut of the official House of the Dragon opening sequence.

The title sequence brings back Game of Thrones’ original theme, but changes up the visuals to match the series’ focus on House Targaryen. Meanwhile, the visuals of the new title sequence take viewers in a soaring through the castles and walls of Valyria before the doom with small trinkets and symbols representing each of the show’s characters. All of this happens using the same cogs and gears that turned the Westeros map for the opening sequence of the original show. As the camera pans across all of these symbols, a bright red stream of blood runs down the walls of a castle eventually covering each one.

Djawadi is back at it again with the cellos, something he told Entertainment Weekly he saw as the “big sound of Game of Thrones.” Beyond that Djawadi says he focused on pulling the themes he thought were most useful from the original show in developing a new sound for House of the Dragon.

“This is all about the Targaryens, so the big thing was to keep their sound and their themes,” Djawadi told EW. “Definitely the sound that Daenerys had is tied to the Targaryens. The sound is the same. However, I think it’s important to point out that, actually, Daenerys has a separate theme than the Dragon theme. So, they’re the two separate themes, but sonically, they’re similar.”

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