7 shows and movies to watch in your House of the Dragon drought

The great wait has begun. With filming on House of the Dragon Season 3 only set to start in 2025 and a season premiere unlikely before June 2026, we won’t be getting our weekly dose of dragons, political scheming, family feuds and epic sets and costumes. In this dark age, we have to make our own entertainment…or borrow some. If you’re not ready to re-binge House of the Dragon Season 1-2, or to take a favourite episodes tour of Game of Thrones Season 1-8, you can still breathe a little fire and magic into your nights with these series and movies.

1. Succession

If the Targaryens got transported to the modern world, they’d be the Roy family. Media conglomerate Waystar Royco is the Iron Throne, and the ailing Logan Roy (Brian Cox) is king, but with all of Otto Hightower’s manipulative, malignant thirst for power. Like Rhaenyra, Logan’s most competent child, Shiv (Sarah Snook), finds herself stuck in a boardroom full of less accomplished men who’re determined to talk over her. These include her brother Kendall (Jeremy Strong), a maniac like Aemond who’s ready for a coup at the drop of a dragon, and youngest son Roman (Kieran Culkin), who’s always going to mess up and make it someone else’s problem. Ugh, what an Aegon! 

With a host more Succession characters, a House of the Dragon fan can find endless amusement playing match-up. Dubious? Who said, “I’m a plant that grows on rocks and lives off insects that die inside me”? Logan’s oldest son, Connor Roy (Alan Ruck), or Helaena Targaryen? 

Binge Succession Seasons 1-4

2. The Righteous Gemstones

Instead of the Iron Throne, the Gemstones have their eyes fixed on the heavenly throne in Danny McBride’s HBO dark comedy about a multi-generational family of televangelists led by widowed patriarch Eli Gemstone (John Goodman). And instead of Westeros, the Gemstones reign over an empire of profitable megachurches. Across the seasons, all sorts of indelicate political negotiations take place between the Gemstones and other church rulers, including Texas megachurch leaders Lyle and Lindy Lissons (Eric André and Jessica Lowe) who go into business with the Gemstones to build a (nominally) Christian timeshare resort. 

The real power struggles between the kids erupt in Season 3, which also sees Eli’s estranged sister May-May (Kristen Johnston) turn to him for help. And if you thought the Targaryens were debauched, take a bath with Eli’s brother-in-law “Baby” Billy Freeman (Walter Goggins), a white-haired former child star who is hilariously Targaryen coded. 

Binge The Righteous Gemstones Seasons 1-3

3. Yellowstone

A sprawling family epic spiced with succession drama, cunning political in-fighting and magnificent mounts? Okay, so the mounts are horses, not dragons, and we have guns rather than swords. But sub in Yellowstone Ranch for King’s Landing and the Duttons for the Targaryens and you get a century-long backstabbing drama about one family’s quest to cling to power and land with all four claws, complete with delusions of destiny and a win-at-all-costs mindset. 

And with Kevin Costner heading up Yellowstone, and Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren presiding over the prequel series 1923, there’s no shortage or acting crowns to go round. 

Binge Yellowstone Seasons 1-5, and 1923 Season 1

4. Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves

Just in it for the fantasy? We see you. If magic, adventure, noble knights and leather armour are calling your name, try the adventure comedy movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves (read more here). It’s a road trip tale as rogue Edgin Darvis (Chris Pine) assembles a heist team – including barbarian warrior Holga Kilgore (Michelle Rodriguez), half-Elf sorcerer Simon Aumar (Justice Smith), shapeshifting Druid Doric (Sophia Lillis) and noble Paladin warrior Xenk (Regé-Jean Page) – to find his daughter. The film captures all the most inventive, absurd aspects of playing tabletop games like D&D with your BFFs, while bringing a host of recognisable monsters to life.

Stream Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves.

Also watch: Speaking of monsters, if you loved it when Vhagar and Vermithor ran amok and ate people, dig into Jurassic Park, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Jurassic Park III, and the Ken Watanabe Godzilla

5. The Winter King

Still in the fantasy realm, but much more on the gritty realism side, The Winter King retells the Arthurian legend as a tale of political intrigue, tribalism, druids, knights, and grand romance. Arthur Pendragon (Iain De Caestecker), exiled illegitimate son of Uther (Eddie Marsan) the High King of fifth-century Dumnonia, returns to his homeland as a warrior who has sworn to keep the peace between the British tribes, and to protect the kingdom from the invading Saxons, until his newborn baby brother is old enough to take the throne.

We also see the story from the point of view of Arthur’s allies, his mentor Merlin’s (Nathaniel Martello-White) protegé Nimue (Ellie James) the druidess, and their friend Derfel (Stuart Campbell), a young warrior. But like House of the Dragon’s Rhaenyra, who put her crown at risk for a fling, Arthur wrecks the peace when he falls for Guinevere (Jordan Alexandra), the lady in waiting to his fiancée Ceinwyn (Emily John), daughter of King Gorfydd (Aneirin Hughes) of Powys, on the eve of their political wedding. 

Binge The Winter King Season 1 

Also watch: Monster-hunting middle ages movie Beowulf with Ray Winstone and Angelina Jolie.

6. Rome

Oh, so you really want to dig into a political knife fight in an ancient empire, while seeing battles from the perspectives of both the nobility and the proles? It’s toga time! Whether you’re after political intrigue among senators, reputations won and lost among Rome’s noblewomen, or bloody executions, wild animals and wilder orgies, it’s here. And if you love forensic attention to detail and research, Rome is a must. Even the series’ humble peasant characters Lucius Vorenus and Titus Pullo (Kevin McKidd and Ray Stevenson), are based on warriors mentioned in Julius Caesar’s war document Commentarii de Bello Gallico (Commentaries On The Gallic War). 

So if you came away from House of the Dragon wanting to research everything that author George RR Martin ever wrote about the Targaryens, wait till Rome lays it on the line about the House of Julii and it’s most famous son, Julius Caesar.

Binge Rome Seasons 1-2

Also watch: More “swords and sandals” epic action in The Eagle with Roman empire-era Channing Tatum, Gerard Butler in 300, 300: Rise of an Empire, and Brad Pitt in Troy.

7. John Adams

If you think of American politics as one big blah enlivened by the occasional horrific car crash, this look back at the country’s revolutionary years is an eye-opener. In 1797, John Adams (Paul Giamatti, as schemingly brilliant as in Billions Season 1-7) became the second President of the United States after George Washington. The series starts us off in 1770 and covers 50 years of his life, including his battles of words with the wily and brilliant political manipulators Thomas Jefferson (Stephen Dillane) and Benjamin Franklin (Tom Wilkinson), the trio’s time in the decadent French royal court, and John’s time in strait-laced London. If you found King Viserys’ rotting year by year fascinating, you might also be intrigued by some of the medical realities that play out in John Adams as teeth decay, and one character undergoes an operation for cancer that’ll have you cringing. 

Binge John Adams season 1 

Just the dragons, please

Maybe you were only in it for the dragons, though. Did you cry like a silly goose when Sunfyre got burned like a marshmallow that fell in the fire? Did you obsess over why Sunfyre learned English to help his drunk-driving rider, Aegon? It’s time to escape to the How to Train Your Dragon universe. Check out How to Train Your Dragon 2, How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World, kids’ series Dragons: Nine Realms Season 2, and the toddler-friendly Dragons Rescue Riders: Heroes of the Sky Season 1. On an unrelated note, we have the animated adaptation of the first of Richard A Knaak’s Firedrake novels, Dragon Rider. 

Now take that Showmax app and tell it, “dohaerās” in your best High Valyrian.