House of the Dragon set leaks confirm major death in season 2

Filming is underway on House of the Dragon season 2 in Spain, and things are getting interesting. Production on HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel kicked off last month, but the big outdoor shoots in cities like Cáceres and Trujillo, both of which stand in for King’s Landing, are only just getting started this week. Since both of those are very public places, there’s no way for HBO to keep things as quiet as they can when they’re shooting on a soundstage or in some far flung wilderness. And you know what that means: people are taking pictures left and right like they’re little birds working for Varys.

We’ve been analyzing these images as they come, and today we’ve got a really juicy one. We’re going to be getting into MAJOR SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 2, so if you haven’t read George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, proceed with caution.

House of the Dragon set photos seemingly confirm major death

Earlier this week pictures surfaced of a giant cart covered in a tarp, which was being set up in the Plaza de Santa Maria in Cáceres. Along with many other fans, we made the guess that this is probably supposed to be a stand-in for the head of the dragon Meleys, mount of Rhaenys Targaryen. In Martin’s book, Rhaenys and Meleys are killed in an epic dragon battle over the castle of Rook’s Rest, where they’re descended on by Aegon II and his brother Aemond, and their respective mounts Sunfyre and Vhagar. While Rhaenys’ body is lost in the battle, the head of Meleys is taken back to King’s Landing as a trophy to show that the deed was done.

Due to its place in the chronology of the story, we’ve been pretty much certain we were going to see Rhaenys and Meleys meet their end in season 2. The set photos all but confirm it though. Check out this new one that surfaced today, courtesy of Javi Marcos on Twitter:

Yup, that’s probably Meleys’ head in King’s Landing

The image shows crowds of people surrounding a procession of armored soldiers passing through the streets of King’s Landing. In their midst is an enormous object with a handful of protrusions, all of which is covered in blue screen material so that the whole thing can be laid over with CGI later on. It really doesn’t take a lot of imagination to picture it as a dragon’s head, probably with spears or some similar sort of weaponry embedded into the grisly remains. Without special effects we obviously can’t say for sure…but what else could it be? The thing is huge!

Update: Since the writing of this article, a video has surfaced which shows the filming of this scene in action. It confirms that what we’re seeing here is Meleys’ head being paraded through King’s Landing. Watch below:

Another recent update from the A Source of Ice and Fire fan page reports that their sources in Spain have sighted Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole), Luke Tittensor (Arryk Cargyll), Freddie Fox (Gwayne Hightower), Phia Saban (Helaena Targaryen), and Michelle Bonnard (the brothel madam from season 1) on set. They also claim that they’ve received a correction from local sources that Rhaenyra Targaryen actor Emma D’Arcy is not present for shooting in Cáceres or Trujillo right now. Which makes sense; unless House of the Dragon deviates from the book in some major way, Rhaenyra probably won’t be spending a lot of time in King’s Landing this season. Those initial reports that D’Arcy was there had us skeptical in the first place.

The death of Rhaenys and Meleys is likely to be one of the big moments of House of the Dragon season 2, so it’s very exciting to know that the production is currently working on it. We’ll be on the lookout for more updates and images from the ground.

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h/t Los Siete Reinos