Filming on House of the Dragon, HBO’s upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series, continues. Looking at all the set pictures we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks, you might get the idea that the entire series is going to take place on a beach, but a new shoot in the town of Aldershot, England — not far from London — breaks the trend.
We’re not going to embed pictures or video from the set in this post for fear of being sued in 2030, but basically we’re looking at a set of richly colored tents set up in a forest clearing, some of which bear unmistakable Targaryen heraldry. Watch this short video to get an idea. There’s also a long line of men on horseback and a large wheelhouse bearing the sigil of the Strong family, who are the lords of Harrenhal during the time when House of the Dragon is set, around 180 years before the events of Game of Thrones.
So what are we looking at here? A tournament is possible; jousts are basically the major league sporting events of Westeros, and there are several important ones in this story in particular. Or maybe it’s an army camp, although I think that’s less likely; House of the Dragon does tell the story of a civil war between rival branches of the Targaryen family, but it probably won’t get going until later in the series.
Meet the Strong family
The wheelhouse with the heraldry of House Strong is interesting. We didn’t hear much about them on Game of Thrones, but in this time period House Strong is powerful, and several members from the family are major players in the story. Gavin Spokes plays patriarch Lord Lyonel Strong, the lord of Harrenhal. Ryan Corr plays his son Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong, a knight and the rumored paramour of Rhaenyra Targaryen, the daughter of King Viserys I Targaryen. And Matthew Needham plays Lord Lyonel’s other son Larys Strong, who becomes a sort of Varys-like figure at court.
All three of these characters are important, especially the two sons, so we might as well get to know their sigil now: lines of blue, red and green (representing the three forks of the Trident river) on a field of white.
We’ll get to meet the Strongs in the flesh when House of the Dragon debuts on HBO and HBO Max sometime in 2022.
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h/t Los Siete Reinos