The first teaser of House of the Dragon season 3 is finally here. Premiering in June — the date is yet to be announced, but it is speculated to be June 7 or June 14 — season 3 will be the show’s penultimate season.
Based on a section of Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, House of the Dragon follows the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, set about 80 years before the events of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and 165 before Game of Thrones.
Let’s take a closer look at the teaser that was released today.
The first clip shows Alicent walking towards the Iron Throne, in a scene that mirrors Rhaenyra in the series premiere. In the show’s first episode, Rhaenyra found Daemon sitting on the throne, while Alicent will find Aemond, who demands to know where she has been. We know from Episode 208 that she was on Dragonstone, meeting Rhaenyra and trying to broker a peace.
At the Team Black headquarters in Dragonstone, Rhaenyra now briefs her council about her agreement with Alicent, who has sworn to surrender King’s Landing. Jace admonishes Rhaenyra not to trust Alicent. I’d be curious to see Daemon’s reaction and his advice, but we are not treated to it just yet.
Did we glimpse Rhaena on Sheepstealer? In Fire & Blood, Sheepstealer is a wild dragon who is claimed by a dragonseed, Nettles. We have many reasons to believe that her storyline was reassigned to Rhaena on the show in a way to condense events and characters. If that was not Rhaena, perhaps Baela on a much bigger Moondancer? In that case, probably at the Battle of the Gullet, of which we see various clips in the teaser, with Jace yelling “Dracarys!” and Corlys Velaryon commanding his fleet.
There is a beautiful sequence of shots of Rhaenyra angrily banging on a closed door, perfectly timed with the music of the teaser. Could someone have locked the Queen somewhere? Could her family have confined her to her chambers to prevent her from fighting the Battle of the Gullet? If that was Jace, and their last interaction was a fight over who was going to battle, I’m not sure I will ever recover.
We also get a first look at what is unmistanenly Tessarion, the Blue Queen, the dragon ridden by Prince Daeron, third son of Viserys II and Alicent. While we don’t see Daeron directly, it’s clear he has joined the green army, possibly ahead of the battle on the Honeywine or the first battle at Tumbleton. We also see Lord Ormund Hightower, commanding his army.
Aegon and Larys run through the woods; Aemond announces that his brother has abdicated the throne — and therefore left it to him. Aemond and Vhagar arrive in Harrenhal and burn the garrison that Daemon left there.
Daemon tells Rhaenyra, “You are the queen of dragons, you have an absolute power within your grasp,” presumably encouraging her to attack her enemies without remorse. On the other side, Alicent tries to reason with Aemond: “Sooner or late, Rhaenyra will send her new dragons here. It will be the end.”
The last clip of the teaser has Rhaenyra in tears — possibly at hearing about the tragic outcome of the Battle of the Gullet — and a voiceover of Daemon declaring, “This is the moment you become queen.”
The teaser is full of short clips of fights, face close-ups, and actions that are hard to place out of context. What is for sure is that the Battle of the Gullet will take up a whole episode and it will likely be as epic as the the Battle of Rook’s Rest that we saw in season 2, Episode 4.
Armies, battles, dragons… those 20 million dollars per episode are certainly showing!
Season 3 of House of the Dragon will premiere in June 2026. Watch the trailer below.