How the House of the Dragon VFX team improved on the Game of Thrones dragons

It goes without saying that a TV show named House of the Dragon has dragons playing a pivotal role. Bringing them to life in a way where they look authentic is another story.

The importance of VFX is something that HBO understood when taking on House of the Dragon. The show expertly includes the dragons alongside stories about political scheming, all of it set well over 100 years before Game of Thrones. And this time, no two dragons look the same.

Mike Bell, the VFX supervisor for House of the Dragon, spoke to SYFY WIRE about bringing the dragons to life. According to Bell, co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik “really had an idea that the dragons should be kind of smelly, dirty, covered in dust, grimy […] in some sequences, especially when they’re just idling, we had flies buzzing around [them], just as an extra layer of realism.” Decisions such as this made the dragons feel much more grounded and real.

Bell also said they tried to make each dragon resemble their riders. “These royal princes and princesses have eggs put in their crib when they’re born, so they have this bond with these dragons right from birth. Sometimes they hatch and sometimes they don’t and when they do — because they’ve grown up together — they almost take on aspects of their rider’s personality.”

The dragons on House of the Dragon “take on aspects of their rider’s personality”

For example, Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) has a dragon named Caraxes. Both rider and dragon are “unpredictable, kind of dangerous […] You like Caraxes, but you’re also terrified of him because you don’t know what he’s gonna do. [He’s] a bit more uncontrollable and needs calming down.”

Bell says that part of the inspiration for Caraxes came from crocodiles; the dragon’s eyelids glaze over in rage, similar to how crocodiles have transparent eyelids for protection whilst underwater.

The showrunners also emphasized to the VFX team that the dragons needed to “look awkward and a bit contorted like [they don’t] belong there” whenever they’re on the ground. “There’s a scene in Episode 1 where Daemon’s trying to calm Caraxes down in the Dragonpit tunnel,” Bell said. “There’s a shot from the front and it’s kind of twisted and contorted and doesn’t feel like it fits in there.”

"And even in the last episode, there’s a scene where Caraxes climbs over the rock, and it’s kind of slipping and skidding. That’s an interesting idea — you’re looking at something that’s meant to be scary and terrifying, but it’s also a little bit skinny and clambering over these rocks."

Of course, House of the Dragon had the benefit of not starting entirely from ground zero when it came to dragon design, since some dragons had already appeared in Game of Thrones. “We definitely looked at what had come before because as the old series was progressing and the work was getting more and more impressive, you just wanted to take what’s come before and try and improve it if you can,” Bell said. “It was using that stuff as more [of a] reference, even down to the way the muscles jiggle and [the look of their] wings. How thick the membrane is on the wings; whether it bounces when they’re walking; and how much it flaps around and whether it should be like really thick, dense leather or quite a thin membrane.”

To see the dragons in action, season 1 of House of the Dragon is available to stream now on HBO Max.

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