House of the Dragon stars attend table read as production on new season takes off

House of the Dragon stars Tom Glynn-Carney (Aegon) and Phia Saban (Helaena) take fans behind the scenes of the season 3 table read.
Tom Glynn-Carney as Aegon II Targaryen in House of the Dragon season 2 episode 4
Tom Glynn-Carney as Aegon II Targaryen in House of the Dragon season 2 episode 4

Filming on the third season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon starts up later this month, and the cast is gathering for the next leg of the journey. Two actors just posted Instagram pics from a table read for season 3. There's Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays king-on-the-run Aegon II Targaryen...

...and Phia Saban, who plays Aegon's wife, queen, and full-blood sister Helaena Targaryen:

For every season of a new show, the cast and crew gather to read through the entire thing. The table read for House of the Dragon season 3 happening now lines up with what we've heard from showrunner Ryan Condal. "[The writing for season 3 is] essentially done and we start [filming] in a couple of weeks," he said the other week. We've also seen sets for the third season rising. It's time to get serious.

Beware MILD SPOILERS for House of the Dragon season 3 below

When last we left King Aegon, he was fleeing the city of King's Landing before his power-hungry brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), now ruling in his stead while Aegon recuperates from some dragon-related injuries, kills him. In the book on which House of the Dragon is based, Fire & Blood, Aegon doesn't flee the capital until later in the story, but the show has changed a lot about the book, so this is par for the course. It'll be interesting to see what the show does with Aegon in season 3. In the book, he eventually reunites with his dragon Sunfyre, but the show may have already killed off Sunfyre...maybe. We'll see. As for Helaena, she remains in King's Landing.

The second season of House of the Dragon wrapped up in August. With filming on season 3 only starting up now, we can expect to see new episodes some time in 2026. With a show this massive, it probably would have been smart for HBO to get a move on sooner, but here we are.

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