House of the Dragon casts Rhaenys Targaryen, Corlys Velaryon and more key characters

Entertainment Weekly pulled the curtain back today on several new additions to the cast of House of the Dragon, its Game of Thrones prequel show.

The series will tell the story of the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal Targaryen civil war that tore Westeros apart over 100 years before the events of the original series. We already know who’s playing key characters like King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), his daughter and heir to the Iron Throne Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), his chaotic brother Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) and his second wife Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), who is pretty sure her son by the king should sit the Iron Throne rather than Rhaenyra. Now, let’s meet the newcomers:

Rhys Ifans (Notting Hill, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 1) as Otto Hightower

Ser Otto Hightower is father to Alicent Hightower, wife of King Viserys. He’s also the King’s Hand, and served Viserys’ grandfather King Jaehaerys I Targaryen in the same position before that. So you can bet that when the a war breaks out between the king’s daughter and his own grandson Aegon II Targaryen, he sticks with his family.

He’s also great rivals with Daemon Targaryen, with whom he served on King Viserys’ small council. He even convinced King Viserys to remove his brother Daemon from the small council…twice, although he would come to regret it.

Here’s HBO’s official description: “Ser Otto loyally and faithfully serves both his king and his realm. As the Hand sees it, the greatest threat to the realm is the king’s brother, Daemon, and his position as heir to the throne.”

Sonoya Mizuno (Ex Machina, Crazy Rich Asians) as Mysaria

Mysaria is very interesting character. She begins her career as a dancing girl in King’s Landing before catching the eye of Daemon Targaryen. Eventually, she becomes his mistress of whisperers, later filling the same role for Queen Rhaenyra. She’s essentially the Varys of this story: she knows where everyone’s buried the bodies and uses information as leverage.

“Mysaria came to Westeros with nothing, sold more times than she can recall,” reads HBO’s official description.” She could have wilted… but instead she rose to become the most trusted — and most unlikely — ally of Prince Daemon Targaryen, the heir to the throne.”

Eve Best (Nurse Jackie, The King’s Speech) as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon

Rhaenys Targaryen is a dragon-rider and the wife of Corlys Velaryon, another important character we’ll get to in a minute. She’s one of several characters in this story who participates in a dragon-on-dragon battle. If the show can pull those off, they will surely become its signature.

Here’s HBO’s official description: “[A] dragonrider and wife to Lord Corlys Velaryon, ‘The Queen Who Never Was’ was passed over as heir to the throne at the Great Council because the realm favored her cousin, Viserys, simply for being male.”

Okay, that last part isn’t exactly how it goes down in George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood. You see, Rhaenys was the eldest daughter of Aemon Targaryen, one of King Jaehaerys I Targaryen’s sons. Aemon was King Jaehaerys’ heir, and Rhaenys was Aemon’s heir. So when Aemon died fighting pirates, Rhaenys should have become King Jaehaerys’ new heir, but instead Jaehaerys chose his other son Baelon, who’s son Viserys eventually became king.

So it comes to the same thing, but the description makes it sound like the council chose Viserys over Rhaenys when really they chose Viserys’ father Baelon over her. Point still stands, though.

Steve Toussaint (Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Judge Dredd) as Lord Corlys Velaryon, “The Sea Snake”

Lord Corlys is “Lord of House Velaryon, a Valyrian bloodline as old as House Targaryen,” per HBO’s official description. “As ‘The Sea Snake,’ the most famed nautical adventurer in the history of Westeros, Lord Corlys built his house into a powerful seat that is even richer than the Lannisters and that claims the largest navy in the world.”

The Velaryons were definitely an important and prestigious house, although I’ll have to look into the claim that Lord Corlys built it to the point where it was richer than House Lannister. But he was definitely powerful and influential. A great mariner, Lord Corlys designed his own ship and sailed it all over the world, brining back treasure from as far as the kingdom of Yi Ti. He was a methodical, intelligent man, and served as Hand of the Queen to Rhaenyra Targaryen.

Let’s address the elephant in the room: yes, HBO has cast a Black actor to play Lord Corlys. No, he’s probably not Black in the books. And yes, that’s all fine.

Martin describes members of House Velaryon as having Targaryen-ish features, so we’re likely talking blonde hair, purple eyes and pale skin. They’re not dragonriders like the Targaryens, but there were apparently in Westeros even before the Targaryens, and are a great friend of the family.

The Velaryons are white on paper but Lord Corlys is Black in the show; it’s a change, but a change I’m perfectly okay with, especially given that it introduces more diversity into the series. I think that’s more important than keeping the adaptation exactly one-to-one. And notably, Corlys is never actually described in the books, so we don’t know what he looks like to start.

There are still more characters to come, but the cast is coming together nicely.

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