House of the Dragon season 2 casts Alys Rivers, Alyn of Hull, and more

Filming has officially begun on the second season of House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series. When last we left off, Aemond Velaryon killed his nephew Lucerys Velaryon while they were in the air riding their dragons. Luke’s mother Rhaenyra Targaryen, who is battling Aemond’s brother Aegon for the Iron Throne, was not pleased. Until now, she’d been trying to keep a lid on outright violence. Not anymore. Here comes war.

Today, Variety reports on several new actors joining the cast for season 2. First up is Gayle Rankin, best known for playing Sheila the She-Wolf in the Netflix series GLOW, as Alys Rivers. Alys is a resident of Harrenhal, a mysterious woman who may be a witch. She has an interesting role in play, and Rankin definitely has the intensity to play her. I like this choice.

Sticking to Harrenhal, Simon Russell Beale will play Ser Simon Strong, the castle’s castellan, aka the guy in charge of it while the actual lord — in this case Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham) — is away. Simon is Larys’ great-uncle.

Beale is a veteran actor with tons of credits on the big screen, the small screen, and the stage. I’m sure he’ll kill it.

Casting characters at Harrenhal is important, since there will be some important plots going down there in season 2. But now let’s head elsewhere.

Freddie Fox will play Alicent Hightower’s brother Gwayne

English actor Freddie Fox is Ser Gwayne Hightower, older brother to lead character Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).

Interestingly, we’ve met Gwayne before, if obliquely; Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) tilted against him in the very first episode of the series, unhorsing him easily. He was wearing a helmet at the time, so they can get away with casting someone new.

Freddie Fox is a lot younger than Simon Russell Beale but also has a lot of credits on the screen and the stage. He more than has the chops.

Abubakar Salim is Alyn of Hull in House of the Dragon season 2

Finally, English actor Abubakar Salim will play Alyn of Hull, a key character in the story going forward. Alyn is the brother of Addam of Hull, who is an even more important character; we don’t know who’s playing him yet.

I won’t spoil much, but Alyn and Addam are both bastard children of (probably) Corlys Velaryon. As for Salim, he’s appeared in shows like Raised by Wolves and Vikings: Valhalla. He also got a BAFTA nomination for playing the protagonist in the 2017 video game Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Casting Salim is interesting, because he’s 30 years old whereas Addam is around 14 or 15 when the Dance of the Dragons breaks out. It looks like the show is going in a bit of a different direction with him.

We don’t have a firm release date for House of the Dragon as of yet, and there are still many characters yet to be cast:

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