As the opening crawl on House of the Dragon reminds us, the new show takes place “172 years before Daenerys Targaryen.” We have a whole new set of characters born well over a century before the people we remember from Game of Thrones. That means there’s zero chance of familiar cameos. No Jon Snow, no Tyrion Lannister, and obviously no Daenerys.
HOWEVER, there is one character who could conceivably show up in House of the Dragon without the show needing to bend time and space: Melisandre, the red witch who helped Stannis Baratheon and then Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen fight the White Walkers.
Melisandre looked like a young woman, but we eventually learned that she was much older than she let on. In fact, preserved by the Lord of Light, she was around 400 years old by the time of Game of Thrones. She was born on Essos during the height of the Valyrian Empire, and would have been around 200 at the time of House of the Dragon.
Carice van Houten reminds us that Melisandre was alive at the time of House of the Dragon
So could Melisandre turn up on the new show? Well, she doesn’t feature in Fire & Blood, the book by George R.R. Martin that the show is based on. There’s really no reason for her to be involved. Her fight is with the White Walkers, and House of the Dragon is about an inter-family conflict for the Iron Throne. She probably has far better things to do on Essos during this time; perhaps she’s in Volantis, spreading the word of R’hllor, or in far Asshai learning dread arts.
But she could technically appear. It’s possible. The timeline works. And actor Carice van Houten is at least open to the idea. She reposted a fan’s Instagram story where they pointed out that, hey, weirder things have happened:
Honestly, I have a hard time believing Melisandre will ever show up on House of the Dragon; the showrunners seem pretty committed to telling the story from the books, and she couldn’t be anything more than a little wink and nod to the fans.
But at the same time, I’m not above a bit of fan service, so I wouldn’t mind if she showed up very briefly as an aside to those in the know. I wouldn’t count on it happening, but in a world where dragons rule the skies, anything is possible.
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h/t The Brag