See Milly Alcock as Young Rhaenyra Targaryen in House of the Dragon

Filming on House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series, continues in Cornwall, England. The show is set some 180 years before the original series and tells the story of a brutal civil war fought between different factions of the Targaryen family. The cast and crew have been busy recently. Over the past few days we’ve seen Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen) on the beach with his Valyrian steel sword Dark Sister, and Eve Best on the beach in costume as Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who Never Was. And now, we see Milly Alcock on the beach as Rhaenyra Targaryen, one of the principal players in this bloody drama.

Man, these characters spend a lot of time on the beach, don’t they? Well, that makes some sense. Rhaenyra, the daughter of King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) and his heir apparent to the Iron Throne, spends a lot of time on the island of Dragonstone, which is where Daenerys Targaryen set up shop after she arrived in Westeros on Game of Thrones. There are also several important characters from the Velaryon family, a naval house with a home base on the island of Driftmark. Both of these islands are in Blackwater Bay near King’s Landing.

Milly Alcock is actually playing the young version of Rhaenyra Targaryen — the older version will be played by Emma D’Arcy. In the the set photo from Nicki Thurgar Photography, we see Alcock in costume alongside actor Theo Nate, who has to playing a younger version of Laenor Velaryon, Rhaenyra’s husband; you can tell because his blonde-white wig is very similar to the one actor Steve Toussaint is wearing as Corlys Velaryon, Laenor’s father.

I’ll admit that I don’t love the way this wig looks on Theo Nate, but there’s a big difference between how a wig looks in a set photo snapped from a distance and how it shows up on film. The Game of Thrones wig department hasn’t let me down yet. And this show is going to be very wig-tastic, y’all.

There are more photos of Alcock and Nate together at the Daily Mail. You can also see some video at News Flare. Also, the Velaryon soldiers look like they’re having a great time on set.

Theo Nate will play young Laenor Velaryon in House of the Dragon

We also have a set photo of young Laenor with actor Solly McLeod, who fans think is playing Laenor’s lover Ser Joffrey Lonmouth. You see, Laenor is gay, and his marriage to Rhaenyra is purely political. Laenor and Joffrey have a relationship just as Rhaenyra has a relationship with Ser Harwin Strong, who it’s whispered is the real father of her sons, Jacaerys, Lucerys and Joffrey (and yes, Laenor does name his third son with Rhaenyra in honor of his lover, who by that point is…well, you’ll see).

FYI, we think the older version of Laenor will be played by John Macmillan, although we’re not 100% sure. As you can tell, there’s lots of twisty family drama in this show. I’d expect nothing less from a successor to Game of Thrones.

Business owners near House of the Dragon filming complain of noise

Who knows how much more of House of the Dragon we’ll see as HBO continues to film in Cornwall? That said, one person who wants the show gone is Krys Humphrey, who owns the nearby Meadow Holiday Park. She told Cornwall Live that the noise from filming is driving away his customers. “Every time the National Trust rent out their car park for a lot of money we get disturbed,” Humphrey said. “The car park is quite big and they could easily put the generators and lorries on the far side of the car park which would make things better.”

"They are located next to the riverbank which is just a couple of metres from our holiday homes. We have asked them to move the generators but they say they can’t. The National Trust won’t reply to anything…We have been told that it could continue for another three weeks. I have some guests booked in who have a baby and others with a lady who is 94. It’s not fair."

The House of the Dragon production team has offered to give gift baskets to people impacted by the noise, but Humphrey is not satisfied. It does sound like it sucks. Maybe if House of the Dragon becomes a bit hit the tourism dollars will make up for it in the long run…?

House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max sometime next year.

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h/t NME