It sounds like one epic House of the Dragon moment won’t be in season 3, although it seems certain it’ll come sooner or later!
As House of the Dragon is about to premiere, all eyes are on the Battle of the Gullet. This epic sea clash will dominate the season 3 premiere and is already being hyped as one of the biggest battles in the entire Game of Thrones franchise.
However, there’s another conflict that may be smaller in scale but larger in implications: The Battle Above the Gods Eye. Speaking in the newest issue of SFX Magazine, Matt Smith, who plays Daemon Targaryen, addressed the battle, and his words indicate it won’t be coming in season 3.
"Kind of. They don’t really tell you what elements they're going to write about," Smith said, when asked if he'd spoken to the show's writers about the end of Daemon's story. "Sometimes I thought maybe they would follow this line of the book, and they chose not to, so you just don't really know. Whether I agree with that or not, it's above my pay grade, really. I just get the scripts, hopefully as early as you can, and then try and influence them creatively through the character and as an actor in the most interesting way. But I still don't know. But there are big bookmarks."
For those who haven’t read Fire & Blood, the Battle Above the Gods Eye had Daemon, atop his dragon Caraxes, facing Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and his dragon Vhagar in an epic aerial duel. We won’t give away what happens, but suffice to say, this fight is key to who wins the Dance of the Dragons.
Will we see the Gods Eye eventually?
It would make sense for this duel not to be in season 3. With the word that the show will be ending with the coming fourth season, holding off on such a crucial story turn would make that final year a bigger deal. Then again, the producers may have decided to go ahead and put it into the season finale as a surprise twist.
Of course, the franchise has deviated from George R.R. Martin's works before. Several plot elements (like Lady Stoneheart) never ended up in Game of Thrones, and House of the Dragon has likewise shifted things up. That calls into question whether the show will end up using the Gods Eye at all, but Smith is hopeful it will.
"One assumes they're headed there, but you never know. It's quite present in the story, isn't it?" he said. "Even in the book, it's been illustrated. It's surely got to head there, but I'm not privy to the details of it until the script. But I'm going to cross my fingers too."
As Smith says, leaving out one of the most critical and fan-favorite fight scenes of the story wouldn’t go over well with some viewers. It would also be a fantastic visual sequence of the dragons and their riders going at it in the skies, as well as a capstone for a few major plotlines. Hopefully, the Battle Above the Gods Eye will happen in season 4, and House of the Dragon fans will see this fantastic fight in all its glory.
House of the Dragon season 3 premieres Sunday, June 21 on HBO Max.
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