Aegon's Conquest: 9 epic moments we can't wait to see in the first Game of Thrones movie

It's official: Game of Thrones will debut its first movie in 2029, when Aegon's Conquest flies into theaters. Written by Andor scribe Beau Willimon and directed by A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' Owen Harris, Aegon Targaryen's imminent arrival on the big screen marks the dawn of a new age, both for Westeros as well as the Thrones film universe at large.

Few events in the annals of Westerosi history are as legendary as the campaign waged by Aegon Targaryen and his two sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys, to bring the Seven Kingdoms together for the first time in their history under one ruler. Before, there were seven quarreling kingdoms which were constantly embroiled in petty wars with one another; afterward, there was one realm led by House Targaryen.

While Game of Thrones' presence on the small screen has been transformative for fantasy television, there's never been any doubt that Aegon's Conquest is the sort of story better suited for theaters. Featuring several massive battles, three of the largest dragons ever seen outside of Old Valyria, and a continent-spanning military campaign, the Conquest as its laid out in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood is filled with epic moments that will look incredible at the movies. Here are nine of those moments we can't wait to see!

1. Aegon's Landing

Not every epic moment in the Conquest is marked by fire and blood; some are impactful simply for what they mean for the future of the Seven Kingdoms. This is the case with Aegon's Landing, when Aegon the Conqueror, his two sisters, and a small army of no more than a few thousand men land on the shores of the Blackwater Rush. After his campaign is finished, Aegon will one day erect a city on this spot, which will be expanded over the centuries by his descendants. It will be named King's Landing, in honor of the spot where Aegon's forces set foot on Westerosi soil.

Out of all the settings we've seen across Games of Thrones and its spinoffs House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, few have received more screentime and development than King's Landing. It's going to be surreal to see the area when it's just three bare hills, before Aegon's followers begin taking up residence there and start the process that transforms it into the metropolis where so many decisive moments for the realm will one day take place.

2. The destruction of Harrenhal

After setting out from the site of King's Landing, Aegon and his sisters split up to begin their Conquest. The future of king of Westeros decides to tackle his most dangerous opponent first: Harren the Black, the King of the Isles and the Rivers. Harren of House Hoare was one of the most infamous and cruel kings in the history of Westeros, who ruled over both the Iron Islands the Riverlands. He constructed a castle to match his black reputation. Like King's Landing, we all know Harrenhal from Thrones and House of the Dragon. But by then it's a ruin. When Aegon Targaryen first beholds it, Harrenhal is at the height of its power, freshly finished after 40 years of construction.

Harren refuses to bend the knee to Aegon, but he's so hated by the lords of the Riverlands that he's subjugated that they all turn against him, throwing in with the Targaryens. So when Aegon and his army arrive at Harren's gates, they far outnumber his garrison. The king locks himself in his castle, since no keep in the realm is better equipped to withstand a siege than Harrenhal.

He doesn't account for the sheer awesome power of Balerion the Black Dread. Aegon flies his dragon up over the castle in the dead of night, descending inside its mighty walls and setting the whole thing aflame. Harrenhal is made of stone, but even that twists and melts under the black flames of Balerion. It's a pivotal turning point for Aegon and Westeros, where the first major house falls to his conquest and he raises up a key supporter, House Tully, in its stead.

3. The Last Storm

House Hoare isn't the only major house that will meet its end during the Conquest. While Aegon secures his victory at Harrenhal, his sister Rhaenys and his bastard brother Orys Baratheon make for Storm's End, where another infamous king named Argilac the Arrogant awaits. Like Black Harren, Argilac is an aging monarch with a fearsome reputation. However, he isn't the sort to wait to die in his castle; instead, he takes a formidable host out into the Stormlands to meet Rhaenys and Orys' army.

They clash in the middle of a great storm, which is where the battle gets it suitable name: the Last Storm. Rhaenys' dragon Meraxes fights on the ground, while Orys Baratheon ultimately defeats Argilac in single combat. It's perhaps the most evenly matched land battle of the entire war, with losses on both sides. But when the dust settles, the Baratheons take control of Storm's End, which will serve as their seat all the way through Game of Thrones.

4. The Field of Fire

The last major battle of Aegon's Conquest is also its most terrible. Known in the history of Westeros as the Field of Fire, it was the only time that all three of House Targaryen's dragons — Balerion, Meraxes, and Vhagar — took to the field at once. The result was horrific, with thousands dead and tens of thousands more wounded.

Notably, barely any of those casualties were for Aegon's army. The Conqueror's opposition at the Field of Fire was a vast army created by an alliance between the Lannisters of Casterly Rock and the Gardeners, who were the kings of the Reach. Their army was so much larger than Aegon's that they assumed victory was all but assured...but once again, the dragons made the difference. Aegon and his sisters set the entire area ablaze while their own troops waited safely upwind, picking off any survivors who stumbled from the carnage.

If there's one battle that the Aegon's Conquest film has to get right, it's the Field of Fire. This is the biggest, most epic and dramatic clash of the entire war. When it's done, House Gardener's line is extinguished, the Tyrells have been raised as Wardens of the South in their place, and the Lannisters have sworn their fealty to the Targaryens. It's going to be incredible to see in IMAX.

5. The King Who Knelt

While the Field of Fire marks the end of the worst fighting of the Conquest, there's still plenty of important moments ahead of it. Only four of the Seven Kingdoms are subdued by that point, and the ground at the Field of Fire has barely cooled before Aegon gets word that Torrhen Stark is leading a massive army of northmen south to face him.

Aegon and his sisters meet Torrhen's host with a large army of their own, comprised of all the houses they've conquered thus far. But rather than join in battle, Torrhen and Aegon negotiate. Ultimately, Torrhen Stark bends the knee, becoming known to history as the King Who Knelt. He is the last King in the North before Robb Stark takes up the mantle in Game of Thrones.

Aegon's meeting with Torrhen Stark stands to take on extra layers in the film, thanks to House of the Dragon's revelation that the whole reason Aegon launched his Conquest was because of a prophetic dream he had foretelling the White Walker invasion that would happen centuries later. This will need to be addressed when he comes face to face with the ruler of the North.

6. Visenya's bloodless conquest of the Eyrie

While Aegon is an understandably larger-than-life figure, his sister Visenya is every bit as formidable. Following Torrhen Stark's surrender, the three Targaryens go their separate ways to conquer their last remaining foes: the Eyrie, Dorne, and the Hightowers of Oldtown, who remained at large because they didn't join the battle at the Field of Fire.

Visenya Targaryen tackles the Eyrie, and her victory there is shockingly bloodless. At this time the Eyrie has a boy king named Ronnel Arryn, whose mother Queen Sharra rules as Regent in his stead. Sharra fortifies the Bloody Gate against the Targaryens, but instead of facing the forces of the Vale there, Visenya Targaryen rides Vhagar down into the heart of the Eyrie itself. When Queen Sharra races home, she finds the Targaryen dragonrider sitting on the weirwood throne with Ronnel on her knee.

Queen Sharra and Visenya reach an accord, with the Eyrie ultimately bending the knee. To mark the occasion, Visenya gives young Ronnel a ride around the mountain on Vhagar, winning his lasting admiration as a vassal. As Martin writes, "[I]t was said afterward that the little king flew thrice about the summit of the Giant's Lance, and landed to find himself a little lord. Thus did Visenya Targaryen bring the Vale of Arryn into her brother's realm."

7. The Yellow Toad of Dorne

While Visenya is subduing the Eyrie, Aegon's other sister-wife, Rhaenys, heads for Dorne. It's there that House Targaryen suffers its only real defeat of the Conquest.

During House of the Dragon season 3, Ormund Hightower regales his ward Daeron Targaryen with a tale of the cunning of Meria Martell, the Yellow Toad of Dorne. She was the only ruler to truly resist the Targaryens, and with the Aegon's Conquest movie we're going to get to see it firsthand.

When Rhaenys flies to Dorne, she finds it strangely abandoned of all its fighting men. She goes from castle to castle in search of opposition, but the women, children, and elderly left behind simply tell her that the rest of Dorne's denizens have gone "away." They hide so effectively in the desert that despite her best efforts, Rhaenys cannot find them.

She ultimately meets with the aging Meria Martell at Sunspear, where the Yellow Toad refuses to bend the knee. Rhaenys promises that she and her siblings will return to wage a proper war there, but Meria isn't cowed.

When Rhaenys leaves, it marks the end of Dorne's part in the original Conquest. Aegon is later crowned King of the Seven Kingdoms, but it's a somewhat misleading sobriquet, as he's only truly conquered six of those kingdoms. The subsequent wars against Dorne happen during Aegon's rule itself, so it's not clear whether we'll see them play out in the movie, but I'd bet we may see one crucial event from those wars — the death of the dragon Meraxes and Rhaenys, who fall during the Conqueror's campaign to bring Dorne into the fold. Given the fact that this happens years later, how Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest will handle this, the most dramatic loss of Aegon's life, is currently one of the biggest questions we have about the film.

8. The coronations of Aegon I Targaryen

In Fire & Blood, the Conquest ends with Aegon's coronation at Oldtown, where he arrives to find that the Hightowers and Faith have already decided to back him. A formal coronation for Aegon is held there. He parades through the city to the cheering throngs of smallfolk, and the High Septon formally anoints him as the ruler of the Seven Kingdoms.

However, this is actually Aegon's second coronation; the first happens immediately after his Landing, when his supporters unveil House Targaryen's banner for the first time and his sister, Visenya, places his Valyrian steel crown on his head. We'll likely see both of these coronations in the movie, possibly as bookends to the Conquest.

9. The forging of the Iron Throne

Every time that Aegon vanquishes a foe or forces them to bend the knee, he collects their swords and sends them back to the burgeoning village of King's Landing. We find out why at the end of the Conquest, when he returns there and mounts the new throne he's forged from those blades: the iconic Iron Throne of Westeros.

Few symbols hold as much weight in George R.R. Martin's fantasy world as the Iron Throne itself. It inflames the ambitions of generations of great lords and ladies throughout history, setting so many of the ruthless political power plays into motion that define the series. While there will undoubtedly be many important and epic events in the Aegon's Conquest film, none will hold the same weight as watching Aegon Targaryen, First of His Name, take his place on the throne for the first time. When he does, he'll also take his place in history as the first ruler of Westeros, without whom none of the rest of the Game of Thrones stories we've followed this past decade and a half could have happened. It's going to be a deeply impactful moment.

We'll see all this and more on June 1, 2029, when Game of Thrones: Aegon's Conquest premieres in theaters.

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