With only days to go until the season 3 premiere of House of the Dragon, HBO just released a new preview clip featuring Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) facing down her son, Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell). The teaser aired during Cooke's interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, and it's just under a minute long. It gives us a great look at how fractured the Greens are heading into this season, and how frightened Alicent is of her younger son. This scene will likely come early in the season, so we'll have the full context when House of the Dragon season 3 premieres on Sunday, June 22 on HBO and HBO Max.
The new scene finds Alicent walking into the throne room in the Red Keep to find Aemond sitting on the Iron Throne, alone. She immediately begins stammering and glancing around, giving all the telltale signs of fear for her life. However, she still projects strength as she asks bluntly, "Why are you here?" At the end of season 2, we last saw Aemond taking his impotent rage out on everyone around him, which earned him a prophetic warning from his sister, Helaena (Phia Saban). As the rider of the largest and most powerful living dragon, Aemond should be out leading the Greens' offensive in this war.
However in this scene, Aemond has somehow found out that his older brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) fled the castle in secret with Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). He interprets this as an abdication of the Iron Throne, while Alicent wants to send out search parties looking for them. Aemond then turns his questions on Alicent, clearly suspicious that she had something to do with Aegon's escape.
Olivia Cooke finds Alicent easy to play no matter how bad things get
Of course, fans know that Alicent was really sailing to Dragonstone for her clandestine meeting with Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) at the end of season 2. However, that wouldn't help Aemond's paranoia any more than his own theory. The one-eyed prince tried to kills his older brother to assume the throne, and he's clearly terrified of his family finding out. He and Alicent are both so distracted by their own guilt that they're not able to recognize each other's suspicious behavior.
Things may not be going well for the Greens right now, but Cooke told Fallon that it's been easier than ever for her to get into character as Alicent Hightower. She said that she finds it "easier to access emotions and things in character" than in real life, quipping: "Anyway, so we're learning to unpack that. So this is fine! Anything that Alicent goes through, I'm just like, 'chill.'"
That resolve may be put to the test as Alicent is thrown back into the fray this season. House of the Dragon season 3 promises more dragon-on-dragon warfare than anything we've seen so far, and it won't be easy anyone in the saddle — nor anyone who loves them.
The new season begins on Sunday, June 22 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.
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