House Of The Dragon composer Ramin Djawadi explains why they reused the Game Of Thrones theme

One might think that House Of The Dragon would want to start with as clean a slate as possible after the negative reaction to Game Of Thrones’ ending. But, at the end of the day, GOT was still a wildly popular series, so it only makes sense that the new show would pay homage to its television origins–particularly in the all-too-familiar theme song.

“We decided to stick with that theme because Game Of Thrones had been off air for three years, and it was decided that we really wanted to tie the shows together. Because even though it’s all-new characters and it’s set hundreds of years before, we felt like it needed that stamp to say ‘This is Game Of Thrones—it’s in a different time, but it’s Game Of Thrones,’” composer Ramin Djawadi explains in an interview with The A.V. Club’s own Hattie Lindert. “We felt like the opening really ties it all together. Even in the first episode, I wrote new pieces, but thematically, you hear the King’s Landing theme, you hear the dragon theme, so it’s very much calling back to the known themes to set the tone again. But then we depart, and as we get to know all the characters, there are new themes. I wrote so much music for the season.”

The difference between the two series, of course, is the hyper-focus on the Targaryen family, for which Djawadi describes “zooming in closer” on the individual members to create new musical themes. His personal favorite is Rhaenyra, because “I feel it gives her a lot of power,” he shares. “And Rhaenyra has more than one theme—there’s also another, more emotional theme that she has. But this vocal one gives her a power that I think is really cool.”

As for returning to the musical world of Westeros after an extended absence, Djawadi shares, “Well, my big thing is: I hope everybody is happy and they’re equally a fan of not just the music, but the show. Because I’m a fan of the show myself, not just because I work on it. So I hope the music continues to inspire people and that they get excited about the new themes for the new characters, so that it kind of does a similar thing like the original.”

You can check out The A.V. Club’s full interview with Djawadi here.