House of the Dragon season 1 introduced us to the main players in the Dance of the Dragons; season 2 marked the beginning and escalation of the war; and in season 3, the war rages bigger than ever before. In the season 3 premiere, the show depicts the Battle of the Gullet, one of the largest and most devastating battles in Westeros' history. In bringing this battle to our screens, the crew spent a little too much money — according to showrunner Ryan Condal, the amount of effort put into the battle was, in layman's terms, "frankly irresponsible."
With season 3, the Dance of Dragons is in full flow. “All of the pot that was set to boil at the end of Season 2 very much picks up in Season 3, and you have these divided factions on either side, but there’s now divisions within the divisions, and those things will continue to fracture, and we’ll continue to see self-interested people do awful things in the name of pride and power and ego and self and family,” Ryan Condal told audiences at SXSW London, as reported by Variety.
As it happens, the Game of Thrones universe has already offered viewers one of the best action sequences in history during the Trial by Seven in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. But what we see in the Battle of the Gullet couldn't be more different: it's a huge naval skirmish with dragons. The battle commences when the forces of the Triarchy (Myr, Lys, and Tyrosh) launch an attack against the Sea Snake's blockade at the Gullet, which was starving King's Landing of resources. Without spoiling anything, the battle is devastating on both sides.
Depicting a battle like this on-screen demanded a major chunk of the season's budget. Showrunner Ryan Condal and the team knew that this was going to kick off the season, and they wanted to do it in style.
"This has been haunting Jim [Clay, production designer] and I for the better part of four years now, and Kevin de la Noy, our physical producer, who had to logistically schedule and pay for this whole thing," Ryan Condal said. "But yeah, this sequence I will confidently say is unlike anything that’s ever been done in television before. Certainly, the amount of construction that you guys [referring to Clay and his team] did for just for one episode is kind of crazy and frankly irresponsible. But it was necessary to tell the story. I mean, this is such a seminal moment in the show.”
Jim Clay has cited historical epic Master and Commander (2003) as a major inspiration for the battle sequence. “We’d throw water at all these guys all the time, and the ship’s going up and down, and in both directions, and then we did it all again with [Sharako’s ship] ‘The Bitchfist,’” he said. “It was a dangerous environment. The floor was slippery, with blood everywhere.”
All of this is to say, prepare for a season premiere like no other. House of the Dragon season 3 premieres June 21 on HBO Max.
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