HBO is hard at work filming its new Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, set 200 years before the show we all know. There’s less source material here than there was with Game of Thrones, so the producers will have more room to go their own way with certain details, but one of the encouraging things about the production is that they seem to be casting a lot of characters from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, even relatively minor ones you might expect would get cut.
And that story continues today, as Instagram sleuth emmadarcyhotd noticed that actor Laura Lake had been cast as Ellyn Baratheon, as Lake herself detailed on her Spotlight page.
Who is Ellyn Baratheon on House of the Dragon?
Ellyn Baratheon is one of four daughters of Lord Borros Baratheon of Storm’s End. She and her sisters were collectively known as the Four Storms. Their biggest scene probably comes near the start of the Dance of the Dragons, a brutal civil war that pits different factions of the Targaryen family against each other.
After the war proper begins, Aemond Targaryen — who support his brother Aegon’s claim to the Iron Throne — arrives at Storm’s End hoping to secure the allegiance of Lord Borros, who grants it on the condition that Aemond marry one of his daughters, possibly Ellyn. Soon after, Prince Lucerys Velaryon arrived at Storm’s End hoping to secure Borros allegiance for his mother Rhaenyra Targaryen, who also had a claim to the Iron Throne. Things get awkward, to put it mildly.
Ellyn comes up again towards the end of the story when she and her sisters attend the coronation of King Aegon III Targaryen, and she is later put forward as a possible bride for the king. It’s hard to know how big a role Ellyn will have — we doubt they’ll get to the Aemond-Lucerys conflict in season 1 — but when you’re trying to tell a story this big, every character and detail counts.
As for Lake, she’s a veteran of shows like Pennyworth, Call the Midwife and Bridgerton. House of the Dragon will premiere on HBO and HBO Max sometime in 2022.
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