House of the Dragon will feature over 17 dragons

The upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon is only a month away, and the realm is readying itself for another showdown of epic proportions. House of the Dragon depicts a brutal Targaryen civil war that took place roughly 200 years before the original series. They called it the Dance of the Dragons.

As you might expect for a war with that name, there are going to be dragons in this series. Lots and lots of dragons. Fire & Blood, the book that House of the Dragon is based on, features literally dozens of the winged lizards doing their thing. But how many dragons will we actually see in the new series?

According to a new behind-the-scenes deep dive over at The Hollywood Reporter, at least 17. What’s more, each one will have its own personality and visual style; the dragons are characters in their own right in this story. THR reporter James Hibberd claims that “considerable effort was made to give each a unique look and personality. Some are even bearded, like tropical lizards.”

And just to make sure we all believed him, HBO dropped a brand new trailer for House of the Dragon the other day, complete with a thumbnail of the dragon Caraxes, who happens to sport one of these spiny beards:

Dragons rule the skies in new House of the Dragon trailer

The trailer finally gives fans something we’ve been waiting for ever since the Game of Thrones prequel series was announced: a good look at all the dragons. Since this show is set centuries before Daenerys hatches her dragon eggs, dragons are still very much a force on the continent of Westeros. They fly the skies, their riders rule the kingdoms, and there are even enormous stables built to accommodate them.

“The biggest difference about this series is the fact that dragons exist in this [era], whereas they were an extinct species that came back to life in the original show,” House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal told THR. “So there’s an infrastructure built around them. There’s a dragon pit, saddles and dragon keepers — this monk-like order that takes care of them.”

One look at that gorgeous trailer makes this all plain to see. Princess Rhaenyra’s mount Syrax is on proud display in a number of shots, as is Daemon Targaryen’s mercurial dragon Caraxes the Blood Wyrm. There are other dragons in the trailer too, though some of the shots are too distantly framed or quick or dark to make out many details, like the fanned end of Syrax’s tail or Caraxes’ tell-tale red coloring. Something tells me we’re going to be doing an awful lot of analyzing dragon visuals in the coming weeks.

House of the Dragon takes flight on HBO and HBO Max on August 21!

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