Luke’s death will release a “rage” in Corlys Velaryon

The first season of House of the Dragon ended with Rhaenyra Targaryen’s son Lucerys Velaryon flying to Storm’s End to try and secure military support for his mother. He was met there by his uncle Aemond Targaryen, who chased Luke into a storm on his dragon, and killed him. Our final shot is of Rhaenyra hearing the news. She turns to the camera, and she looks very, very angry.

And she won’t be the only one. Rhaenyra has lost a son, but Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) has lost a grandchild, even if they’re not technically related by blood. “I think he’d be devastated,” Toussaint told a crowd at the Game of Thrones Official Fan Convention this past weekend, per Entertainment Weekly. “I think it would unleash a certain rage in him. Somebody mentioned this to me today and I hadn’t thought about it: the scene in Episode 7 when I say to little Luke, your brother’s gonna be king, but you get to do all this. And he says, I don’t want it because if I do it then someone’s dead. And that, I think, will resonate with Corlys when he thinks about that boy being dead.”

"[Luke] didn’t really want to be in this, and through the machinations of others, he’s now dead. I haven’t seen scripts for season 2 yet, but I’m hoping that will be addressed because that’s his grandchild."

As Toussaint points out, Corlys cares a lot about legacy, so he’s unlikely to take the death of a young family member — and the heir to his seat at High Tide, no less — lying down. “It’s not about personal wealth ’cause he’s rich,” the actor said. “But it’s about legacy. We’re not gonna be forgotten.”

House of the Dragon season 2 will be all about war

Toussaint also gave fans a preview of season 2 more generally. “My understanding of what season 2 is, is pretty much it’s the war.”

"Now, I may be wrong ’cause I haven’t seen [the scripts], but that’s the thing. Are we right to go into war? Am I on the right side? Well, I think Corlys is the kind of person who is like, there is a rule of law. There is a way we do things and it has been transgressed by the Greens. He’s forthright in his belief. So it’s about that, about being comfortable in your certainty. Once he sets his mind to something, he doesn’t really suffer from doubt. It’s black or it’s white. It’s right or it’s wrong. I think that’s who he is."

The war he’s talking about is known as the Dance of the Dragons, the brutal fight between Rhaenyra Targaryen and her half-brother Aegon for control of the Iron Throne. We’ll get into the thick of it when House of the Dragon season 2 premieres in 2024.

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