It’s really here! After years of speculation and hype, we’ve all finally seen the premiere of House of the Dragon, HBO’s first successor show to Game of Thrones. War is afoot, and a battle for succession looms as King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) breaks with Westerosi tradition to name his daughter Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) heir to the Iron Throne.
The series premiere, “The Heirs of the Dragon,” started things off right, giving us plenty of dragons, jousting, politicking, and bloody twists. But it’s only a drop in the sea compared to what HBO has planned for the rest of the season. Once the first episode of House of the Dragon ended, the network dropped a trailer to tease what lies ahead in the rest of the season, and it looks epic:
House of the Dragon Weeks Ahead Trailer breakdown
The trailer begins with a sweeping wide shot of the dragon Syrax swooping down over the bridge at Dragonstone. You can just make out Rhaenyra Targaryen on the dragon’s back.
There appear to be two groups of people on the bridge. Could this be that stand-off scene with Daemon (Matt Smith) and Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) over the dragon egg that we see later in the trailer?
From there, we skim through a few fast shots: an overheard of servants walking with lanterns (you can tell because of the handmaids’ distinctive outfits, which we saw in Episode 1), a distant shot of someone climbing down into a rocky chasm, and Viserys holding hands with young Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey). Then there’s this intriguing scene:
Someone in plain peasant’s clothing walking by the skull of Balerion the Black Dread in the Red Keep. This doesn’t look like a servant or peasant to me. Could it be Rhaenyra in disguise, maybe sneaking out of the castle? Or another character under the employ of some politician or other?
While these scenes play, Rhaenyra says “From my blood come the Prince that was Promised, and his will be the song of ice and fire.” It’s not clear where she’s getting these words; she appears to be reading something. The season premiere gave fans of a huge twist when it introduced the idea that Aegon the Conqueror had a prophetic dream about the coming of the White Walkers, which we saw in Game of Thrones. It appears House of the Dragon will run with that.
Then there’s this brief shot, which appears to be of a masked man standing at the mouth of a cave.
We get a better look at his masked face later in the trailer. Any guesses as to who this guy is?
From there, we’re off to a castle. Harrenhal, judging by the dilapidated towers.
Corlys Velaryon is looking unimpressed below. We didn’t spend a ton of time with Steve Toussaint’s Sea Snake in the premiere, but he’s a major player in the Dance of the Dragons, so expect to see a lot more of him. Those are some nicely manicured hedges around him as well; the gardens of King’s Landing, perhaps?
Another close-up shot, this one of Larys “Clubfoot” Strong (Matthew Needham). We won’t meet Larys for quite a while yet, but he’s already giving off some pretty sneaky vibes.
Next, Caraxes rocks Rhaenyra’s boat. Now that we’ve gotten a better look at Daemon Targaryen’s dragon, its distinctive body type is more recognizable; note the fanned fins halfway down the tail, almost reminiscent of a shark.
Next up, Viserys reiterates the dangers of rule:
The burdens of rule
“The burden of this knowledge, it is larger than the throne. It is larger than you,” says King Viserys while holding up the catspaw dagger from Game of Thrones. We saw him wearing this at his hip throughout the season premiere. Given how concerned with duty Viserys is, we’re guessing the knowledge he’s talking about is that Prince that was Promised prophecy that Rhaenyra was reading at the beginning of the trailer.
From there we run through a series of close-ups and shots we’ve seen in other trailers: Emma D’Arcy as adult Rhaenyra, Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen illuminated by firelight, and Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) giving Rhaenyra advice about how unlikely the men of the realm are to accept a queen:
But there are also a couple of shots we haven’t seen before, like this one of Rhaenyra decked out in Targaryen black as she stares out at the ocean. Based on the ominous lighting and her choice of garb, I’m guessing that this could be after her claim to the throne starts to be more seriously contested in her adulthood. Greens and blacks and all that.
There’s also this quick shot of King’s Landing, centered on a distinctive building. We’ve already seen the Dragonpit so we know this isn’t it, and House of the Dragon takes place decades before the Great Sept of Baelor is built. Any guesses as to what building this is? Perhaps the Starry Sept in Oldtown?
A few other quick shots, like Rhaenyra and Alicent in the Godswood at King’s Landing and more of the standoff between Otto and Daemon on Dragonstone. Then we get this exciting glimpse at what we are going to assume is the Black Council, when Rhaenyra Targaryen gathers her allies on Dragonstone after she realizes her claim to the throne is being usurped by a former friend:
Speaking of former friends, Rhaenya and Alicent Hightower exchange glances as knives come out. We’ve seen plenty of this scene before, which is referred to in the production as the “Eye for an Eye” sequence. One thing in particular to note from this trailer is that we actually see Alicent draw the dagger. She appears to be pulling it from a sheath on someone else’s belt; perhaps her son Aegon II?
She’ll be trying to give Rhaenyra the ol’ poke-in-the-face with that dagger. It’s going to be a standout scene of the season, mark me.
We’re a million miles from the best friends we saw in the premiere here.
“Dreams didn’t make us kings. Dragons did.”
Next, we get a beautiful moonlit shot of Daemon and Rhaenyra walking on a beach while Daemon waxes philosophical about the root of Targaryen power.
King Viserys and Alicent step out of a carriage, surrounded by smallfolk and men-at-arms. It’s not clear what the deal is with this camp, but we’re away from King’s Landing and it looks pretty festive. Also, is it just me, or is Alicent looking like she could be pregnant in this shot? She’s bundled up pretty heavily compared to everyone else in the scene.
Next, we’ve got a huge fleet making its way to King’s Landing, replete with a pair of dragons soaring through the skies above. We only get a brief glimpse of these dragons as they swoop over a tower in the city, but it’s enough to tell that these are not Syrax or Caraxes. Note the full back legs on the dragon on the left (as opposed to Caraxes’ smaller legs with fins), the short neck, and the silvery scales.
Another slew of quick shots, starting with Rhaenyra and Ser Harrold Westerling (Graham McTavish) looking down on a group of hopeful knights, including Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel):
Viserys enjoys the view of the Dragonpit from his chamber window:
And young Rhaenyra reaches for a certain dagger:
Meanwhile, Alicent proclaims, “Let the people remember the ancient strength of House Targaryen,” and we get this very interesting shot of a Kingsguard holding out Viserys’ crown.
Some mild spoilers from Fire & Blood here, but after the death of King Viserys, the royal crown changes hands a few times. One of those times the crown is taken in the dead of night when Ser Steffon Darklyn changes sides in the Dance, and he then presents it to his new allies. Perhaps that’s this scene? We know Darklyn is being played by Anthony Flanagan in House of the Dragon, but I’ll be honest, even after staring at side-by-side pictures of the actor and this shot for a few minutes I can’t say for sure if it’s him or not. That beard is like a disguise.
We’re off to the beach, most likely in the Stepstones. Corly Velaryon mentioned this area during the Small Council meeting in the premiere; raiders backed by an alliance of the Free Cities known as the Triarchy are attacking Westerosi ships from this location. It has an important role to play, so we’ll be seeing it this season:
Leading the Triarchy forces is a brutal man known as Craghas Crabfeeder. He got that name from nailing his victims to stakes out on the beach so that the crabs could feed on their flesh. The trailer lets us know with a nice little crabby cameo that we’ll see this happen in House of the Dragon:
“You are no conquerer, you are a plague,” growls Viserys as he pins his brother Daemon to the ground at the foot of the Iron Throne and holds the catspaw dagger to his throat. I swear, that weapon is cursed.
Also, note that Daemon has shorter hair in this scene. House of the Dragon season 1 will span around 28 years. Maybe Daemon gets a hair cut after some of those years go by?
Rhaenyra dances with Laenor Velaryon (Theo Nate), presumably at their wedding. The composition of this shot is interesting; who is Rhaenyra looking at here, who’s out of focus in the foreground? Ser Criston Cole?
Speaking of weddings, this next very brief shot appears to be of a handfasting. Since we’ve seen this before in other trailers, we’re pretty sure it’s from another wedding that occurs later in the season, which we will not name for spoilers. Fire and blood is the Targaryen way, and that apparently extends to their nuptials.
Next up, we get a sneak peak at some of the characters who have yet to be introduced:
Heirs of the Dragon
We’re coming up on the end of the trailer. Next is this shot of four kids standing in a row. Based on the staging, this looks like it could be on Dragonstone, maybe in that same Black Council scene that we saw earlier.
As for the identities of these children, we’re looking at Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia), Jaecerys Velaryon (Harry Collett), Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault), and Rhaena Targaryen (Phoebe Campbell).
Syrax is not happy. Also, she has landed in this picture — note the narrow pathway she’s perched on.
It’s cool to see a variety of characters and especially younger ones as dragonriders in this series, considering how much it was almost exclusively the domain of Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones. By this point in her life, Rhaenyra has already been riding Syrax for years. Here she is in the saddle:
This next shot happens so fast it’s almost impossible to tell what’s going on. But from we can parse, it looks like this is Rhaenyra stabbing something. The final frame of the shot shows blood splashing up onto her face.
More dragons! One red and one silver. From the composition of this shot and the fact that are two of them, it seems like this could be the same scene from earlier in the trailer with the fleet. Maybe this is Laenor on Seasmoke and Rhaenys on Meleys?
Next is a slew of quick battle shots. They all appear to have that rocky beach setting we saw earlier in the background, so I’m betting this is the Stepstones war. Here’s a dragon melting Triarchy forces. Now that we’ve seen more of Caraxes, we can say for sure this is not him. Maybe Seasmoke again?
We end with this stunning shot of an immense dragon taking off from a tower. Based on the tattered wings and the enormous size, we’re betting that this is our first glimpse of Vhagar, the oldest living dragon in the world.
There’s a lot to look forward to this season on House of the Dragon. In this trailer alone, we see at least five different dragons, warfare, betrayals and more. It’s going to be quite a ride.
House of the Dragon premieres new episodes every Sunday at 9:00 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max. We’ll be covering it extensively, including on Take the Black, which we’ll run at 10:30 p.m. EST after the episodes drop:
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