There’s a casting mystery afoot on the second season of House of the Dragon. Get out your magnifying glasses and fingerprinting kit, because we’re going to try and crack the case. Beware SPOILERS below.
We already know of several new actors joining the cast of HBO’s Game of Thrones show for its second season: Gayle Rankin is Alys Rivers, Simon Russell Beale is Ser Simon Strong, Freddie Fox is Ser Gwayne Hightower, and Abubakar Salim is Alyn of Hull.
Alyn is of particular interest here. In George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood — the book on which House of the Dragon is based — he and his younger brother Addam take part in an event known as the Sowing of the Seeds. Basically, at one point in the war, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) finds herself with more dragons than riders. She and her team put out a call: if anyone can successfully tame any of the riderless dragons on Dragonstone, they will be given titles and lands in exchange for fighting against the greens in behalf of Queen Rhaenyra. Alyn and Addam both answer this call and become important characters moving forward.
Both Alyn and Addam are speculated to be the bastard children of Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussiant), the head of the powerful House Velaryon. That’s part of the reason they’re potentially able to ride dragons in the first place. The text doesn’t confirm this, but it’s pretty obvious; I’m betting the show will clear it up.
Will Addam of Hull be in House of the Dragon season 2?
So we know who’s playing Alyn of Hull. But it was strange that HBO didn’t announce anyone for Addam, who has the more prominent role in the book; he eventually rides the dragon Seasmoke, who was previously ridden by Corlys’ trueborn son Laenor Velaryon (John MacMillan). Surely the show wouldn’t cut such an important character?
Some fans speculated that, instead of introducing Addam of Hull, House of the Dragon would bring back Laenor Velaryon into the picture and have him play that role. In Fire & Blood, Laenor is killed by this point in the story. But the show spares him; last we see him, he’s rowing away from Driftmark with his lover Qarl Correy after faking his own death, so the show could conceivably bring him back to ride Seasmoke once again.
Personally, I thought the show should have killed Laenor; for a variety of reasons, I think that would have been better for the story, but I was steeling myself for the possibility that he would return and play Addam’s role. But now the plot has thickened…
Actor Clinton Liberty will reportedly play Addam of Hull in House of the Dragon season 2
HBO is currently getting ready to film scenes for House of the Dragon season 2 in Wales, and different actors have started to show up on set. According to local outlet North Wales Live, that includes Emma D’Arcy, Steve Touissant, and Abubakar Salim: Rhaenrya, Corlys and Alyn of Hull. We can assume they’re going to film something set on the island of Dragonstone, where all of those characters are currently situated.
But there’s a new person in the mix: Clinton Liberty, a young Irish actor who’s appeared in TV series like Normal People and Red Election. According to North Wales Live, he’s playing Addam of Hull.
A few other people have reported this news, including the @westerosies Twitter account and the TikTok-er ladydragonjj. It’s hard to know if these are independently confirmed reports or if the story is just gaining moss as it rolls downhill, but rolling it is.
If Clinton Liberty (great name, by the way) is indeed playing Addam, it’s terrific news, because Addam has a fantastic arc in the pages of Fire & Blood that I want to see brought to life onscreen. But wait, because this plot gets even thicker.
John Macmillan (Laenor Velaryon) returns for House of the Dragon season 2
So according to all those sources mentioned, including North Wales Daily, John Macmillan — the man who played Laenor Velaryon — is also on set in Wales.
So at first fans thought Laenor might take over Addam’s role in House of the Dragon season 2. But now it seems that both Addam and Laenor are around. What’s going on?
Well, assuming that there isn’t just some mixup — it’s possible Laenor is indeed replacing Addam and that Clinton Liberty is playing some other, as-yet-unidentified character — we probably won’t know until we see more. If all of these people are indeed gathered on Dragonstone…I don’t even know. Will Addam still end up riding Seasmoke even though his original rider has returned? Is that even possible? What will the reunion between Laenor and his father Corlys be like? Remember, Laenor tricked his parents into believing he’s dead. Awkward.
It’s also possible that Laenor will be in the show, but play a different role. Last we saw him, it was implied that he was headed to Essos. There’s a storyline from Fire & Blood where one of Rhaenyra’s younger children spends some time in Essos, fostered by a series of different powerful people. Maybe Laenor gets wind that Rhaenyra’s kid is in town and offers to help him.
Or maybe HBO is trolling us and bringing back John Macmillion so we’ll gawk at pictures of him from the set and wonder how this is possible. We’ll probably know more once the cameras start rolling in Wales.
In the meantime, what do you make of all this?
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