For the second year in a row, House of the Dragon‘s season finale has leaked online—most of it, anyway. As initially reported by Variety, dozens of clips from the August 4 episode were posted to a brand-new TikTok account before being hastily deleted by HBO. However, the clips escaped to other social media platforms where they continue to spoil the finale for Game of Thrones diehards as we speak.
We will not reveal here what these clips depicted (we’re not monsters), but up to 30 minutes of footage in total from the final episode purportedly made its way online through the rogue TikTok account. While the account was suspended three hours after the videos went live, the scenes quickly escaped to other social media platforms like Reddit and X, which in the year since its post-Twitter rebranding, has become increasingly lax in moderating leaked or pirated uploads.
To ensure there would be no leaks (womp womp), HBO didn’t release any screener copies of the finale to online media outlets, something it has done in the past in an attempt to crack down on spoilers. As previously mentioned, last year’s House of the Dragon finale leaked online in its entirety just two days before its intended airdate—not to mention the countless Game of Thrones leaks over the years—which, as Vulture reported on years ago, are nearly impossible for the network to control.
While its programming is a paid prescription in the United States, HBO repackages its series for broader services, stations, and streaming networks worldwide. For instance, in the United Kingdom and western Europe, the company will pass its programming to Sky Atlantic, which then makes the content available on its Now TV streaming platform. As the saying goes, there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, so this leak could’ve come from anywhere in the world.
So remember: if you see something, say something… unless it’s the House of Dragon finale. I would like to wait until this Sunday.
Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, what’s next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.
