House of the Dragon: Criston Cole actor on set to film Battle at Rook’s Rest

Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of activity on the House of the Dragon set in Bourne Woods in England, where the show is filming a large-scale sequence involving masses of soldiers. Specifically, they’re soldiers loyal to King Aegon II Targaryen, who’s fighting his half-sister Rhaenyra Targaryen for the Iron Throne. The greens are stirring.

Mostly, we’ve just seen masses of extras so far. Today we got a look at some cast members both old and new, starting with Fabien Frankel as Kingsguard knight Criston Cole:

There are also some new cast members about. For instance, Freddie Fox will play Alicent Hightower’s older brother Gwayne:

Then there’s Eddie Eyre, who played Ser Gerold Hightower in the Tower of Joy flashback on Game of Thrones. We don’t know who he’s playing on House of the Dragon, but we know he’s there:

And here’s a video of this mass of humanity on the move:

What is the Battle of Rook’s Rest?

So this is a big sequence. But what exactly is everyone doing? Consulting the text of George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, there’s really only one thing they could be filming: the battle at Rook’s Rest.

Without giving away too much, the Battle at Rook’s Rest is a clash between the greens and the blacks at Rook’s Rest, which is the seat of House Staunton in the Crownlands, which is the area around King’s Landing. Criston Cole hatches a plan to lure one of Rhaenyra’s dragonriders into a trap…and it works. Dragons clash in the sky and soldiers fight on the ground, and by the end of it, one dragon is dead. We’ve seen evidence of where they land.

We’ve also seen director Alan Taylor on set for this sequence. He’s directing the first and fourth episodes of House of the Dragon season 2. There are a few plot twists that need to happen before we get to Rook’s Rest, so this very probably isn’t going to feature in Episode 1. But Episode 4 sounds about exactly the right place for it.

The second season of House of the Dragon will have eight episodes in all. It will premiere on HBO and Max sometime in 2024.

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