Major House of the Dragon character finally cast

House of the Dragon is loosely based on George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, specifically the sections about the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. The show has already introduced us to most of the main players, including Alicent Hightower and her children. But her youngest son, Daeron Targaryen, has yet been seen onscreen. For a while, fans suspected the show may have cut him from the story, but then Alicent mentioned him in season 2, and he'll officially be introduced in season 3.

And now, we know who's playing him, thanks to the photogs over at the House the Dragons X account. Photos have come in showing the actor playing Daeron Targaryen in costume on set in Surrey, England, where the show has been doing a lot of shooting lately. He will be played by British actor Charlie Gordon, who has appeared in shows like Virtual Insanity and in Netflix's production of Matilda: The Musical.

Charlie Gordon is a trans man and the second binary trans performer to play a supporting role; pirate leader Sharako Lohar, who was introduced in season 2, is played by trans woman Abigail Thorn.

House of the Dragon strays from the source material in new season 3 scene (beware SPOILERS)

Unlike his older brothers and sister, Daeron was mostly raised away from King's Landing in the Hightower home base of Oldtown. He rides the blue dragon Tesserion, whom we saw very briefly at the end of season 2. In Fire & Blood, Daeron marches towards King's Landing with the Hightower army, which is led by his cousin Ormund Hightower, another new character; Ormund will be played by James Norton.

We can see both Gordon and Norton at work in a video from the set. In this video, Ormund speaks with the young Daeron before turning him over to a surprise guest: Daemon Targaryen, played by Matt Smith, or at least that's what appears to be happening:

Daeron is fighting for the Greens and supports his brother Aegon's claim to the Iron Throne. Daemon, on the other hand, fights for the Blacks and supports the claim of his wife Rhaenyra. Daemon and Daeron do not meet in Fire & Blood. My best guess is that this is some kind of summit, a meeting between enemy combatants to see if they can settle things without bloodshed. That said, given how many major changes House of the Dragon has made to the source material, it's hard to be sure of anything.

What we know for sure is that Daeron is now part of the drama. The third season of House of the Dragon is due out on HBO and HBO Max sometime in 2026.

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