Watch stunning new footage from House of the Dragon
By Daniel Roman
We’re less than two weeks away from the premiere of House of the Dragon, HBO’s highly-anticipated Game of Thrones successor series. House of the Dragon is set around 200 years before the original show and will cover the events of a civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, when rival factions of the Targaryen family tore the realm apart over who should sit the Iron Throne.
HBO released a new behind-the-scenes video the other day that contained a whole bunch of new footage. Let’s hit on the highlights from “Height of an Empire.”
See Syrax in all her resplendent, colorful glory
This latest video shows a ton of footage that hasn’t appeared in trailers. First and most exciting, this teaser gives us one of the best looks we’ve gotten yet of young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and her dragon Syrax:
Rhaenrya appears to be hanging with her dragon right as young Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey) is arriving at King’s Landing. Could this be one of the first times that Alicent and Rhaenyra meet?
“As [with] any great tale out of [George R.R. Martin’s] world, it’s about a power struggle for the throne. But the unique one about this one is that instead of it being one family fighting another family, like Lannisters fighting the Starks, this story is about the Targaryens fighting themselves.” teases showrunner Ryan Condal.
Rhaenyra and Alicent will be right at the center of that struggle. Expect there to be a lot of very, very bad blood between them, despite beginning as the bestest of besties. Here they are at the tourney we’re expecting to be in the season premiere, which has seemingly been relocated to King’s Landing, as opposed to its Fire & Blood setting of Maidenpool.
Speaking of the tourney, we also get a pretty cool shot of Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) decked out in full Targaryen armor as he prepares to do battle with Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).
House of the Dragon will show the Targaryen empire at the “height of its hubris”
“We’re 200 years in the past, but we were at the height of the Targaryen empire, which was a time of decadence, and by definition the height of an empire usually means the height of its technology, the height of its hubris,” explains Miguel Sapochnik, the series’ other showrunner. “We had to show this idea that this was an opulent and decadent group of people. No war for 60 years, I mean they’re a happy bunch.”
And yeah, the Red Keep in King’s Landing is looking pretty decadent in these days:
King Viserys I Targaryen, played by Paddy Considine, is the ruler of Westeros at the show’s outset. Viserys kind of just wants everyone in his highly dysfunctional family to get along. If only…
Hobert Hightower revealed on House of the Dragon
One early scene that we’ve gotten a look at in trailers is when the various lords of Westeros come to King’s Landing to swear fealty to Rhaenyra, whom Viserys chooses as his heir. But this new featurette includes a lord we haven’t seen before: Hobert Hightower, played by Steffan Rhodri. Rhodri played the Welsh king Hywel of Deheubarth in season 4 of The Last Kingdom, and now he’s made the leap to Westeros.
This is a really interesting addition, because in George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, Hobert is not a lord but a knight and cousin to Otto Hightower, Viserys’ Hand of the King. Oldtown is ruled by Otto’s brother Ormund Hightower. It’s possible that the show is combining Ormund and Hobert to streamline things a bit; Hobert in particular has a memorable moment late in the Dance of the Dragons, though he’s got a reputation for being a bit of a stout-hearted buffoon up until that point. Rhodri is certainly not giving off buffoon vibes here, so we’ll see what the show does with his character.
Moving on, we’ve got Daemon again, this time looking disheveled from battle as he greets his brother Viserys. Note the gold cloak he’s wearing; I can only guess they’re going to talk about some of the draconian methods Daemon is using to to stamp out crime in the streets of King’s Landing.
Another picture of Daemon with the Gold Cloaks:
“Daemon has a great affiliation and love and admiration for his brother, the king. But Daemon’s all swords and knives, really,” says Smith. “I do think on some level, he wants to cause chaos. I think he’s interested in chaos. I think he survives in chaos quite well. He’s got a very quite clear moral compass, and you’re either in it or you’re out of it.”
Rhaenyra Targaryen ascendant
Next, Rhaenyra reaches for the catspaw dagger from Game of Thrones. She’s still a teenager here; there’s no way to know that Alicent will try to stab her eye out with this thing later in life:
At this point in time, Rhaenyra and Alicent are still pretty close. They prayed together, hung out around the Red Keep together…it’s going to be hard to watch them have their falling out.
At the core of House of the Dragon is a struggle over who will sit the Iron Throne. Viserys names Rhaenyra his heir when she’s still a teenager, and she displays her aptitude for leadership early and often. Here she is about to speak up at a Small Council meeting where she’s acting as cupbearer:
It’s hard to tell whether the lords are impressed or perturbed she is interjecting, but it is clear that they have thoughts.
“Rhaenyra is strong-minded, she’s smart. I think she’s underestimated,” says Milly Alcock about her character. “She realizes that the women in the kingdom spend their entire lives serving to men. ‘Oh, you need to be courted.’ ‘So now I need to gain the attention of men so that I can produce another man?’ She wrestles with it, she doesn’t like it, she doesn’t agree with it.”
We’ll see just how far Rhaenyra will go to upend the patriarchy that tries to keep her from the throne when House of the Dragon premieres. From the looks of things, she’ll be getting her hands plenty bloody in the process:
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max on August 21.
Next. HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel show is like “Succession with dragons”. dark
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