It's been a good week to be a House of the Dragon fan. On Monday, HBO confirmed that the third season of its Game of Thrones prequel series had begun filming. At the same time, two new cast members were announced: Tommy Flanagan as Roderick Dustin aka Roddy the Ruin, and Dan Fogler as Lord Torrhen Manderly. And on top of that, showrunner Ryan Condal sat down with Entertainment Weekly to discuss everything from the Battle of the Gullet to George R.R. Martin's critical blog post of last year. It's been a busy few days!
We're still poring through Condal's words about season 3, and today it's time to shine the light on none other than King Aegon II Targaryen, played by Tom Glynn-Carney. Aegon was one of the surprise breakout characters of season 2; I never particularly liked him in Martin's book Fire & Blood, but Glynn-Carney infused the conflicted king with a sense of tragedy, humor, and seething frustration that made him instantly sympathetic. Aegon didn't ask for the Iron Throne, and he has just enough time to consider that he might actually want it before he's brutally blasted from the sky with by his brother Aemond's dragon, Vhagar.
When last we saw Aegon he was in pretty bad shape, barely able to walk and covered in burn scars over more than half his body. While he lay in his sickbed, his mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) agreed to sell him out to Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy), and regent Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) was on the cusp of murdering him just to make it easier to claim the throne. Instead of waiting to see who would end up killing him, Aegon escaped the Red Keep with the help of his scheming Master of Whispers Lord Larys Strong (Matthew Needham).
Where will Aegon go next in House of the Dragon season 3? This is something of an open question. But wherever he ends up, showrunner Ryan Condal has promised Aegon II is still "a big, big part of the show."
"He's kind of lost to history in the sense that nobody really knows what happened," Condal told EW. "We took that, as the writers, as a great opportunity to figure out. That was one of the great challenges of writing season 2: figuring out something that would work and be satisfying, but also not cause ripple effects in the narrative and change where the other big pieces are going. Honestly, I think it's one of the best stories that we cracked this year."
Condal is right that Aegon sort of disappears in Fire & Blood, and the book never really fills in that blank. SPOILERS AHEAD.
What happens to Aegon II Targaryen in Fire & Blood?
In Fire & Blood, Aegon escapes King's Landing with Larys shortly before Queen Rhaenyra takes the city back from the Greens. After that, we don't see him again in the narrative for quite some time.
His eventual reappearance is heavily tied to the fate of his dragon, Sunfyre. Following the battle of Rook's Rest, Sunfyre remains in the forest near the castle to recover from his horrible wounds. After some enterprising knights loyal to the Blacks try to kill him, Sunfyre eventually leaves the region. Later on, we find out that he's taken up residence on Dragonstone, where he's clashing with some of the island's wild dragons. Rumors of these strange occurrences with the dragons start to spread, and eventually reach Aegon II. He sneaks onto the island with the help of a knight named Marston Waters, and reunites with his dragon. We've already gotten hints that House of the Dragon will include this plotline.
The book never fills in what happens to Aegon after he leaves King's Landing, and plays the long game with the reveal that he and Sunfyre have both slipped onto Dragonstone as well. Considering that the show is also being coy about whether Sunfyre lived or died, it makes sense that this could turn into a really compelling storyline. House of the Dragon has made plenty of controversial deviations from Martin's book, but expanding on Aegon's exile sounds like a smart decision to me. I'm curious to see how it plays out.
King Aegon and Sunfyre still have a major role to play
How things resolve for Aegon and Sunfyre will effect the ultimate resolution of the series. Both of them have a very large role to play in ending the Dance of the Dragons civil war, so it's important for the show to handle their story well. House of the Dragon is currently planned to run for four seasons. According to EW, Condal is already mulling that eventual ending, and how this series will tie back around to the original Game of Thrones.
"There has to be a why, why we're telling the story of House of the Dragon," Condal said. "I can get into the why of that at the very end after the series finale has aired, but we set out at the beginning with a very specific point of view on that."
House of the Dragon season 3 is currently in production! Expect to see it on your TV sometime in 2026.
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