The season finale for HBO’s “House of the Dragon” has leaked online ahead of Sunday’s airing … and the streaming giant is pointing fingers at its distribution partner as the reason.
The final episode for the “Game of Thrones” prequel popped up illegally on torrent sites Friday, giving patiently-waiting fans a chance to see how the climactic season ends before the official air date.
HBO thinks it pin-pointed the problem, though — in addition to yanking the episode from the web, a spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter, “It appears to have originated from a distribution partner in the EMEA region,” which is located in Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
The company adds, “HBO is aggressively monitoring and pulling these copies from the internet” … noting how disappointing it is for the show to leak early.
HBO also points out a major downside to watching the finale early … urging people to wait to watch it on Sunday on HBO Max, “where it will stream exclusively in 4K.”