House of the Dragon will “expand its scope” in season 2

Season 1 of House of the Dragon is at an end. Unlike predecessor show Game of Thrones, there was far less in the way of world-spanning adventure in the prequel series. Instead, viewers spent the vast majority of their time in King’s Landing, Dragonstone, and Driftmark, with occasional forays to other locales like Storm’s End or the Stepstones.

All that could change with season 2. The House of the Dragon season finale, “The Black Queen,” saw the first blood drawn in the Dance of the Dragons civil war. Now Queen Rhaenyra will be rallying her allies and setting out to get revenge for the death of her son Lucerys. One side effect of that is that we’ll likely see much more of Westeros in season 2.

House of the Dragon season 2 will introduce new locations not seen in Game of Thrones

The season finale of House of the Dragon spent a fair amount of time showing us the gorgeous Painted Table map of Westeros on Dragonstone, where such historic campaigns as Aegon’s Conquest and Daenerys’ invasion of Westeros were planned. Rhaenyra Targaryen and her allies looked over the map of her kingdoms as they decided their first moves against the greens. According to showrunner Ryan Condal, that’s just a taste of how much more we’ll see of Westeros.

“The show definitely has to expand its scope in the second season. Just as the original Game of Thrones grew in scope and expanse as it went, so, too, will ours,” Condal told Variety. “We’ve lived a good bit in three different worlds through this show: King’s Landing, Dragonstone and Driftmark. I think those will continue to be the home bases for the show. But a war is coming that requires allegiances from different kingdoms and armies all over the map of Westeros. I don’t think we’re going to get quite as vast as the original Game of Thrones did in its final analysis. But there are definitely many more new worlds to come, and new worlds that you haven’t necessarily seen in the original show, either. Rest assured, plenty of scope to come.”

While season 2 will introduce some brand new locales, it will also return us to some of the most iconic ones from the original series. One that we’ll almost certainly visit is Winterfell. “The Black Queen” saw Rhaenyra’s oldest song Jacaerys set off on a long journey with his dragon Vermax, with the goal of securing the allegiance of the Arryns of the Vale and the Starks of the North.

Jace’s time in Winterfell is a nice little break amidst the heaviness of everything else going on down south. While Luke’s journey ended in tragedy, Jace’s leads to him forming a few strong bonds with new allies. One of those is Cregan Stark, the ancestor of Ned Stark who is currently ruling Winterfell. In Fire & Blood, he and Jace become friends. We don’t know for sure if that will happen in the show, but “The Black Queen” set it up when Rhaenyra pointed out that Cregan is closer to Jace’s age than hers, and that she hoped the two would find some common ground.

Condal is keeping quiet about whether we’ll see Cregan in season 2, and whether the production has its eye on any actor in particular. “Uh, we will cast Cregan Stark at some point, but no comment otherwise,” he said. But will we see him in season 2? “I don’t know, will we? I can’t answer that.”

Daeron Targaryen will debut in House of the Dragon season 2

One character Condal was a little less reticent to talk about is Daeron Targaryen, the youngest son of Alicent and King Viserys. For weeks fans speculated over whether Daeron was even in the show, since he was never once mentioned during the first season. However it has already been confirmed by George R.R. Martin that Daeron will eventually appear. Condal expanded on this, reassuring viewers that Daeron is exactly where we all thought he was: in Oldtown serving as a ward to his granduncle Hobert Hightower.

“[Daeron] does exist. No worries, everybody,” said Condal. “He’s the youngest son. He’s warded off at Oldtown to Hobert Hightower and soon to Ormond Hightower, who is Hobert’s nephew, who becomes Lord of Oldtown. Honestly, this stuff happened all the time in this world. It’s not our modern day where if you had a 6-year- old, you would FaceTime them every day and see how they’re doing and write letters. He’s there. That’s the fact. When he is relevant to be mentioned — and he will be — he will be mentioned.”

While we saw Oldtown in Game of Thrones — it was where Samwell Tarley trained to be a maester — we didn’t get to really explore it or spend any time with its ruling family, the Hightowers. Given how central they are to this conflict, it’s safe to expect that Oldtown may be an important location on House of the Dragon, and that Alicent’s youngest son Daeron will have plenty to do before the war is over.

House of the Dragon season 1 is available now on HBO Max. Season 2 is set to start filming early next year.

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