Sources tell Puck the situation became contentious, with a mediator brought on board in an attempt to smooth things over. Ultimately, Sapochnik chose to leave the series, walking away with an exclusive first look deal at HBO and retaining his executive producer credit for the remainder of the time “House of the Dragon” is on the air, per The Hollywood Reporter. As for Raben, her original character Talya was last seen in episode nine, when the castle servants of King’s Landing were imprisoned in the wake of King Viserys’ death. Talya was revealed as a spy, and Alicent gave the okay for Larys Strong to get rid of her and her colleagues, though we don’t ever see what becomes of the lady-in-waiting.
HBO has so far declined to comment on IndieWire’s reporting of the Sapochnik news. While there’s no way to know if these two sources paint a complete picture of the co-showrunner’s exit, they do describe a startlingly typical scenario in Hollywood. Producers with nearly blank IMDb sections have been at the helm of some of the biggest shows on television in recent years, though they’re rarely called out for such. As Vulture cheekily pointed out in a recent piece titled “An All-But Definitive Guide to the Hollywood Nepo-verse,” nepotism is also alive and well in the industry, and the employment of family members can certainly sometimes lead to tricky situations.