Stunning pics of Alicent Hightower’s wedding cut from House of the Dragon
By Daniel Roman
We’re nearing the halfway point of the first season of House of the Dragon, HBO’s much-hyped prequel series to Game of Thrones. The first season of House of the Dragon tells a story that spans decades, but thus far it’s been pretty easy to follow. The source material — Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin — is full of conflicting accounts of events, but the series is showing us what “really” happened, and doing it in a coherent, enjoyable way.
Because House of the Dragon skips so quickly through time, we don’t get to spend much time on specific relationships before moving on. For instance, I doubt I’m alone in saying that I wish we’d gotten a bit more time with Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) and Alicent Hightower (Emily Carey) as besties before their relationship became more complicated when Alicent married Rhaenyra’s father, King Viserys (Paddy Considine).
The show also blew past the wedding between Alicent and Viserys. Episode 2, “The Rogue Prince,” ended with Viserys announcing his decision to wed her, but by the next episode three years had passed and their first-born child was already a toddler. Like sands through the hour glass, so are the days on House of the Dragon. But as it turns out, there was a scene featuring Alicent in her wedding dress, but it ended up on the cutting room floor. And we have the images to prove it:
Emily Carey (Alicent Hightower) stuns in images from cut wedding dress scene
The images in question come courtesy of hairstylist and make-up artist Tania Tyatyambo Couper, who worked on the first season of House of the Dragon. Couper shared the images to her Instagram, giving fans a behind-the-scenes look at one of Alicent’s most gorgeous costumes that we didn’t get to see in the final show.
“@theemilycarey we found the photos ! @natwickensmakeup had taken these photos and done Queen Alicent a beautiful make-up for this look !!! Such an amazing look for such an amazing actress !!! This was my 2nd fav look I did for Queen Alicent Hightower,” Couper wrote.
The images show Carey’s Alicent wearing a magnificent gold and red headdress, accenting a complicated up-do hairstyle. Couper also shared a behind-the-scenes process slideshow about the hairstyle, as well as another couple of images that show Alicent’s wedding dress. Then there’s this post from Carey herself which found its way onto Reddit, which shows her hanging out on set in full costume:
Alicent wore her wedding dress in a cut scene from House of the Dragon Episode 2
“The dress, the hair, the tiara ….. such a shame it didn’t make the edit …. Cutting room floor,” wrote Couper. “[S]ad times … @theemilycarey sad times indeed .. @houseofthedragonhbo why you do me like this 😩🐉😩🐉😩 swipe for Queen Alicents wedding dress.”
House of the Dragon has no shortage of beautiful costumes, but even by the show’s lofty standards, Alicent’s dress stands out. Note the Targaryen colors and dragon wing accents on the shoulders.
Couper also responded to one fan who asked which episode this scene was meant to appear in, revealing that it was filmed for Episode 2 before eventually being cut. “That’s just how it goes in the movies …. No time or reason …. It just happens ! The grown ups decide when editing it all together.”
Episode director Greg Yaitanes filled us in on what the scene was about on his Instagram Stories. Apparently, it wasn’t a scene of Alicent and Viserys getting married. Instead, it’s Rhaenrya helping Alicent get into the dress and asking if this is what she really wants. There’s even a picture:
Here’s hoping that HBO includes some of the footage for this scene whenever House of the Dragon makes its way onto Blu-ray.
New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
Next. Small Council: What did you think of House of the Dragon Episode 3, “Second of His Name”?. dark
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