House of the Dragon season 3 set pics: Floating bodies and search parties

The Battle of the Gullet has been called "probably the most complex sequence that's ever been done for television." So far, so true.
House of the Dragon season 2
House of the Dragon season 2

The cast and crew of House of the Dragon continues to film season 3. They're shooting a lot of stuff, but we've seen them work especially hard on a major action sequence set to kick off the new season: the Battle of the Gullet, where ships and dragons mix it up near the island of Driftmark.

Without giving too much away, the Battle of the Gullet is a major clash between House Velaryon on the one hand and the Triarchy on the other, with the Velaryons fighting for Queen Rhaenyra and the Triarchy pirates sailing for King Aegon II. Obviously, dragons also get involved, because what else did you expect on this show?

Game of Thrones never featured a major navel battle, so this is a chance for House of the Dragon to break new ground. Showrunner Ryan Condal has called the Battle of the Gullet "probably the most complex sequence that's ever been done for television," and they certainly are shooting long enough for us to believe him.

We've seen a lot of this battle and its aftermath filmed on location, mainly on the island of Anglesey in Wales. And more shots continue to come in, including one direct from cast member Abubakar Salim, who plays Corlys Velaryon's bastard son Alyn of Hull. Last we saw Alyn and Corlys (Steve Toussaint), they were boarding Corlys flagship about to set out to sea. They will run into trouble. "It's a lot," Salim captioned his photo on his Instagram.

In one video from set, provided as usual by the resourceful House the Dragons X account, we see Alyn in a rowboat appearing to be searching for someone:

The Battle of the Gullet is devastating for both sides, with ships smashed to pieces and many people thrown overboard. In George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood, at least one major character does die in the battle. Suffice it to say that there are plenty of people Alyn could be looking for. Other photos show bodies floating in the sea:

Welcome to Camp Hightower

Meanwhile, in Surrey, England, the crew is building an encampment for the Hightower army led by new character Ormund Hightower (James Norton):

That's a whole different storyline, and yet the show is going all-out on both. Hopefully the third season of House of the Dragon will do right by all these impressive shoots when it debuts on HBO and HBO Max sometime next year.

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