HBO has announced a pretty substantive cast for House of the Dragon, its Game of Thrones prequel show set over 100 years before the original series. Matt Smith is Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke is Alicent Hightower, and so on.
But House of the Dragon is like its mother show in that it has a lot of characters, and not all of them can share top billing. Reddit has noticed a new face popping up on the set: Outlander and The Hobbit veteran Graham McTavish.
"Graham McTavish’s Wikipedia Filmography has been updated to include HoTD. from HouseOfTheDragon"
For reference, McTavish himself revealed that he was in Cornwall about a week ago, which is where the production was filming. Seems pretty certain at this point.
The 60-year-old McTavish is one of those sturdy actors who’s appeared in just about everything over his long career, turning in solid performance after solid performance. He played the dwarf Dwalin in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit movies and Dougal MacKenzie on Outlander (he also played Dougal’s son William.) He voices Dracula in the Netflix show Castlevania, played the Saint of Killers for 42 episodes on Preacher, played King Atlan in Aquaman, and a whole lot more. Any set is lucky to have his experience.
Who is Graham McTavish playing in House of the Dragon?
And that includes the House of the Dragon set. The question now is who he’s playing, and unfortunately we don’t have a solid answer. One theory is that he’s Ser Harrold Westerling, the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard for King Viserys I Targaryen. Ser Harrold is eventually replaced as Lord Commander by Ser Criston Cole, played by Fabien Frankel. I could completely see McTavish as a grizzled warrior.
Another possibility is Lyonel Strong, the Lord of Harrenhal (obviously that means he comes to a bad end). Lyonel serves as both master of laws and Hand of the King to King Viserys. His son Harwin Strong, aka Breakbones, eventually gets involved with King Viserys’ daughter Rhaenyra Targaryen, played by Emma D’Arcy.
Hopefully we’ll find out more soon! Until then, welcome to Westeros, Mr. McTavish.
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