HBO‘s “House of the Dragon” has suffered another online leak.
Several scenes from the Season 2 finale — scheduled to air on Aug. 4 — leaked onto TikTok on Tuesday night, just five days before the episode will air on HBO and stream on Max. One TikTok account posted 14 videos and roughly 30 minutes of footage from the unaired finale; the videos had approximately 50,000 to 100,000 views at the time of this article’s publication. Roughly three hours after the videos were posted, the TikTok account was banned, but the videos have made their way onto Twitter/X and Reddit.
The situation mirrors what happened to the “House of the Dragon” Season 1 finale, which leaked online two days before its air date in October 2022. That previous leak came from a distribution partner in Europe, the Middle East or Africa, according to HBO at the time. Variety has reached out to HBO and TikTok for comment on the Season 2 finale leak, but has not immediately heard back from either.
“Game of Thrones” had its share of online leaks over its eight-season run, especially during its final season. Multiple episodes of Season 8 appeared on illegal sites, and even on legitimate platforms such as DirecTV Now and Amazon Prime Video’s German platform posting episodes ahead of their scheduled airings.
With so many international distribution partners catering to the franchise’s rabid fans, it’s proven nearly impossible for an entire season of either “Game of Thrones” or “House of the Dragon” to go unspoiled ahead of schedule. HBO had tried to head off piracy of the Season 2 finale by not sending screeners of the finale to journalists, but, alas, the episode leaked anyway.
From Variety US