More new actors revealed on HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel show

Like Game of Thrones before it, House of the Dragon has a huge cast. This story may be set 200 years before the one we know, but Westeros is no less complicated; there’s a dizzying number of characters all vying for power, so we’d best start memorizing their vowel-laden names now.

We already know many of the actors involved; Matt Smith is playing the hot-headed Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke is the ambitious queen Alicent Hightower, and so on. And a lot of those figures featured in the new teaser released by HBO the other day…but there were also a few we hadn’t heard of yet.

As TV Line reports, we got a couple new casting confirmations out of the trailer, most of them involving the powerful Velaryon family, the wealthiest family in Westeros at the time this story is set (Lannisters, eat your heart out). They have a power walk moment in the middle of the teaser:

"The Velaryons! from HouseOfTheDragon"

Meet Laena and Vaemond Velaryon from House of the Dragon

The guy second from the left is Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), the patriarch of the family and a big player in this story. We also knew about his wife Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best), a dragonrider who was passed over to be queen in her younger days. Between them is their son Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate), who we’d seen filming behind the scenes.

The newcomers are on the far end of that photo. On the far right we have Savannah Steyn as Lady Laena Velaryon, the daughter of Corlys and Rhaenys. A dragonrider like her mother, she gets married to Matt Smith’s character Daemon Targaryen. And on the far left we have Wil Johnson as Ser Vaemond Velaryon, Corlys’ younger brother. If the show stays true to George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, Vaemond’s greed will stir up trouble for the Velaryon family, but will he live to regret it?

Speaking of textual accuracy, in the book, Vaemond is Corlys’ nephew, not his brother. If TV Line’s reporting is accurate, the show may be simplifying things here, which is fair; we have more than enough names to learn.

House of the Dragon casts children to play the younger characters

So House of the Dragon has a lot of characters, but there’s a whole set we’ve barely heard anything about: the children. There are a lot of kids in this story, many of whom will grow up to be young adults by the time it’s over; it’s that Game of Thrones in that way, too; what would that show have been without the journeys of characters like Arya, Sansa and Bran?

I’ll list off some of the younger characters here, although some are more important to the story than others. Mind some SPOILERS in here. Daemon and Laena have twin daughters, Baela and Rhaena. Later, after Laena dies, Daemon gets remarried to his niece Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy); they have two sons, Prince Aegon and Prince Viserys.

On top of that, Rhaenyra already has three sons from a previous marriage: Prince Jacaerys (Jace), Lucerys (Luke), and Joffrey (Joff). And then there’s Alicent Hightower, who’s married to King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine), Rhaenyra’s father. She and the king have four children, three sons and a daughter: Aegon II Targaryen, Helaena Targaryen, Aemond Targaryen and Daeron Targaryen.

Not all of these kids end up being important to the story, but several of them do, so unless HBO is planning to combine some of them to cut down on characters (which might well happen), there are a lot of child actors it’s keeping out of sight.

But we suspect that’ll change soon. After the trailer dropped, two separate children’s talent agencies made it known that they were involved in the series. Here’s what the daisy&dukes agency said on Twitter:

"We can’t say exactly who we have involved in this prequel to Game of Thrones, because if we did that we would be facing dragon fire from the skies above.But, it’s all very exciting and we are so proud of our clients who have a part in this brilliant looking HBO series!"

Mark Jermin Management made a similar statement on Instagram:

"After sitting on the news for over a year! the team at Mark Jermin Management are so pleased to finally announce that some of our clients have secured lead roles in the massive new series, GAME OF THRONES- HOUSE OF THE DRAGON!!Now that the official teaser has been released we are so excited to share our involvement in the project and can’t wait to watch, and although we can’t reveal all yet we will be able to soon so watch this space…"

So yeah, expect plenty of kiddies in the first season of House of the Dragon, which will cover the early events of this story. Several of those kids grow up to have big roles, so perhaps they’ll be recast with older actors down the line.

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