With HBO’s critically acclaimed A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms gearing up for its season finale on Sunday, it’s time to check in on that other Game of Thrones spinoff: the far darker House of the Dragon, which now has a suitably ominous teaser for its upcoming third season.
(Spoilers for the first two seasons below.)
The series is set nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, when dragons were still a fixture of Westeros, and chronicles the beginning of the end of House Targaryen’s reign. The primary source material is Fire and Blood, a fictional history of the Targaryen kings written by George R.R. Martin. As book readers know, those events culminated in a civil war and the extinction of the dragons—at least until Daenerys Targaryen came along.
The first season spanned many years and featured some pretty significant time jumps, which required replacing the younger actors as their characters aged. For those who might need a refresher: King Viserys (Paddy Considine) died, and his second wife, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), conspired with her father, Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), to crown her eldest son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), as king instead of Viserys’ declared heir apparent, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy).
Even though she was technically the rightful heir, Rhaenyra actually seemed to be considering House Hightower’s conditions for concession—until the arrogant Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), Alicent’s younger son, went after Rhaenyra’s young son, Lucerys (Elliot Grihault). Both dragonriders failed to control their dragons, and Aemon’s much bigger dragon, Vhagar, gobbled up poor Lucerys and his little dragon, Arrax, in mid-air. The season closed with Rhaenyra and her husband/uncle Daemon (Matt Smith) receiving the devastating news, effectively dashing any hope of a peaceful resolution.
House of the Dragon has always taken a leisurely, more focused approach to its characters’ political maneuverings, interspersed with bursts of bloody violence, and S2 was no exception. But it opened with a bang: the infamous “Blood and Cheese” incident (well-known to book readers), in which assassins sent to take out Aemond as vengeance for Lucerys can’t find him and butcher Aegon’s eldest son instead. We lost a couple more dragons and several supporting characters in the ensuing chaos, and Aegon was so severely wounded that Aemond became regent—with no plan to relinquish the Iron Throne any time soon.
Dance of Dragons = Death
What we didn’t get to see: the spectacularly brutal Battle of the Gullet, the bloody conflict at sea that will now be a centerpiece action sequence for S3 after HBO trimmed S2’s episode count from 10 to eight. But the finale teed it up perfectly, as Rhaenyra finally declared outright dragon war (the nuclear option) following Aemond’s reckless destruction of Sharp Point. As for Aegon, he went into hiding in Braavos, intending to wait out the war before reclaiming his throne.
Much of the main cast—those whose characters survived S2, that is—are returning, including the aforementioned D’Arcy, Cooke, Smith, Glynn-Carney, Ifans, and Mitchell. Also returning: Steve Toussaint as Corlys; Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria; Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole; Matthew Needham as Larys; Jefferson Hall as Jason and Tyland Lannister; Harry Collett as Jacaerys; Bethany Antonia as Baela; Phoebe Campbell as Rhaena; Phia Saban as Helaena; Kurt Egyiawan as Orwyle; Kieran Bew as Hugh Hammer; Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull; Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull; Tom Bennett as Ulf White; Freddie Fox as Gwayne Hightower; and Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers.
Joining the cast for S3 are James Norton as Ormund Hightower; Tommy Flanagan as Roderick Dustin; Dan Fogler as Torrhen Manderly; Tom Cullen as Luthor Largent; Joplin Sibtain as Jon Roxton; Barry Sloane as Adrian Redford; and Annie Shapero as Alysanne Blackwood.
The third season of House of the Dragon premieres on HBO this June. Look, we know this story doesn’t end well for anyone. It’s Westeros. But we also know we can expect a wild ride.
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