House of the Dragon’s big actor changes “scared the hell out of HBO”

House of the Dragon took a lot of risks in its first season, and none bigger than the 10-year mid-season time jump. For the first five episodes of the series, viewers grew used to Milly Alcock and Emily Carey as Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, two young women who went from being the best of friends to political rivals. However, on the other side of the time jump, the characters were played by Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke. It was a lot to ask viewers to get re-invested in these characters all over again.

This was something both showrunner Ryan Condal and HBO were acutely aware of. According to Condal, the idea of the big recast in the middle of the season “scared the hell” out of both him and the studio.

HBO was nervous about big House of the Dragon time jump

“It did scare the hell outta me,” Condal admitted to Deadline. “It scared the hell out of HBO, too. But to their credit, I mean it’s really the best network in the world. They were bold and said ‘we’re HBO, we’re buying into this and we’re gonna do this.’ I’m incredibly grateful to them for it. But yeah, it scared the hell outta me.”

"No one else has really done it before. I mean, the closest analog that I have is The Crown, one of my favorite dramas of the last 20 years. I’ve talked about The Crown more in our room than I did about most other shows other than the original Game of Thrones. They did it incredibly successfully. It was the proof that we could do it on a more accelerated timeline because it was so successful. They went from from Claire Foy and Matt Smith to Tobias Menzies and Olivia Coleman. You accepted that they were the same characters. The different thing is those are historical characters and you know who they are. But it was proof to me that if the drama was compelling enough and the story was compelling enough, that people would stay and follow the characters and not the actors. And sure enough, that’s what they did."

Now that the first season is over, we can look back and conclude that the actor swap worked out. All four actors killed it, as did the casting department.

And fans stuck around. The reception to D’Arcy and Cooke’s takes on Rhaenyra and Alicent has been overwhelmingly positive. It’s even more impressive considering how attached fans grew to the younger generation of characters. Milly Alcock’s Rhaenyra in particular immediately spawned a legion of faithful fans. In an alternate world, might Condal and company have made a full season of TV with just Alcock and Carey as Rhaenyra and Alicent?

"[Milly Alcock] did a great job, and so did Emily Carey, by the way. They were both phenomenal young actors. I’m jealous of them ‘cuz they have such an incredible career ahead of them and they’re just in their early twenties. The challenge with this season was providing enough of the seeds and backstory, the prologue to what happens without getting mired in it. Viserys’ entire reign is a period of peace. It becomes potentially dangerous in terms of making television to live in that world for too long, without the incident that everybody knows is coming. So sure, it would been great to have an extra episode of time to do this and do that. But the writers worked really hard and we spent many months writing and debating where to end the young women’s story. It was that point. The other things that happen in that timeline do not ultimately change what’s going to happen in the future."

It’s a fair point: as much as it would have been nice to spend more time with the younger versions of the characters, we have to get to the meat of the story eventually. Season 1 ends with the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons civil war and it probably wouldn’t have been wise to push that much further back.

There will be no more big time jumps on House of the Dragon

Now that we’re into the war itself, many fans have been presuming that we’re done with all those time jumps. While House of the Dragon season 1 spans around 20 years, the war itself only lasts for about two. Condal is keeping quiet about how much time will pass between the end of season 1 and start of season 2, but he did confirm that there will be no more “huge jumps forward in time.”

"I will say, as a reward to our wonderful audience for following us through all the time jumps and recasts, they are done. We tell the story in real time from here forward. The actors are playing these characters until the end. We’re not recasting anybody. We’re not making any huge jumps forward in time. We are now in the Dance of the Dragons, and we’re gonna tell that story."

So get comfortable with the current actors; they’ll be sticking around for a while. But maybe not too comfortable…it is a Game of Thrones show, after all.

House of the Dragon season 1 is available to stream now on HBO Max.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels