Earlier this week, House of the Dragon cast member Steve Toussaint, who plays Corlys Velaryon, sat down to read through the upcoming third season along with his castmates...and posted a list of every character appearing in the fourth episode. The list may not spoil much, but it does tell us a few important things, like that Alicent Hightower's youngest son Daeron Targaryen will officially be part of the cast. I understand why Toussaint didn't think posting something so small would give anything away, but he may have underestimated how wonderfully obsessed this fandom is; he quickly took the post down.
Anyway, the list featured characters both old and new. Some of them are drawn from the pages of George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood and some are original to the show. One of the new characters is simply named "Tom." At first, I assumed Tom was just some random supporting character...but then I was reminded that there are a couple of important Toms who appear in Fire & Blood: Tom Tanglebeard, a fisherman living on the island of Dragonstone; and his son Tom Tangletongue, so named for his stutter.
It's not clear if the Tom on the House of the Dragon season 3 Episode 4 is Tom Tanglebeard, Tom Tangletongue, or perhaps a new character that combines the two; neither of them are terribly important, so I wouldn't be surprised if that happens. But that they are in the season at all tells us something about where it's going.
Beware MAJOR SPOILERS for Fire & Blood and House of the Dragon below!
Near the end of House of the Dragon season 2, King Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) flees the city of King's Landing along with Larys Strong (Matthew Needham). He's ahead of schedule compared to the book, but we still expect him to follow the same basic path he does in the text. That path eventually leads him to Dragonstone, which is the stronghold of Aegon's half-sister and rival Queen Rhaenyra and the last place anybody would look for him.
Larys conspires to sneak King Aegon to Dragonstone with the help of a knight loyal to Aegon named Marston Waters; by this point, Rhaenyra is in King's Landing, so the island of Dragonstone isn't as heavily defended as it once was. Once Marston smuggles the king to the island, he stays with Marston's family: his uncle Tom Tanglebeard and cousin Tom Tangletongue.
The two Toms help hide Aegon while he recuperates. Later, they hear rumors about an elusive dragon on the island, Grey Ghost, getting killed. Aegon suspects it might be the work of his own dragon Sunfyre, who you'll remember Aegon rode into battle at Rook's Rest in the best episode from House of the Dragon season 2. Sure enough, they find him, and dragon and rider are reunited.
More happens after that, but let's stop this spoiler-fest while we're ahead. The point is that the presence of "Tom" suggests this plotline will play out for Aegon, and that makes me happy, because I was afraid the show had changed it right out of existence.
If you remember, in the show, we're told that Sunfyre died after the Battle of Rook's Rest; we hear it multiple times, once from Criston Cole in the episode after the battle and later from Aegon in the season 2 finale. Book readers know that Sunfyre has a big role to play going forward; he does some majorly important things after he and Aegon reunite that I won't spoil here. So the idea that the show would cut him was alarming to me.
That said, mentioning that Sunfyre died twice does kind of feel like the writers setting up a later surprise that he's alive. If the two Toms are involved in season 3, I think that's what's happening.
But we won't know for sure until the third season of House of the Dragon airs on HBO and Max sometime in 2026. Filming begins this month.
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