The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon premieres next month, and the cast is getting out there to spread the good word. Stars Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Tom-Glynn Carney (Aegon II Targaryen) and Ewan Mitchell (Aemond Targaryen) all appeared over the weekend at the CCXP comic convention in Mexico, where they teased plenty of fire and blood to come.
At the end of the first season of House of the Dragon, two rival factions of the Targaryen dynasty were ready to go to war: the Blacks are united under Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy), the eldest child of the late King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine). Opposing Rhaenyra is her younger half-brother Aegon, who leads a faction known as the Greens. At first, Rhaenyra wanted to keep a lid on outright war, but after her half-brother Aemond killed her son Luke (Elliot Grihault) in the season 1 finale, all bets are off.
According to Steven Weintraub of Collider, the actors playing characters on each side of this war rarely saw each other on set, which makes sense; the Greens and the Blacks are at war and there will be no palling around. HBO has been leaning into this division in their marketing, and the actors are having fun with it as well. "When you're right, you're right, and when you're wrong, you're Green," quipped Steve Toussaint, who plays Rhaenyra's ally Corlys Velaryon.
Toussaint also caught us up on exactly how much time has passed for the characters since the end of season 1. "Season 2 begins about 10 days after season 1 ends," he said. "So for Corlys, he is still coming to terms with the grief of losing his son, his brother, his daughter and his heir, his grandson. So he is trying to deal with that, plus hold on to the one thing he holds most dear, which is his relationship with his wife....He's in a very weakened and emotional state when we meet him."
Eve Best, who plays Corlys' wife Rhaenys, also weighed in. "Rhaenys is trying to keep everything together in the light of the horrible loss of Viserys and everything that's been going on the last 10 days," she said. "She's pulling out all of her strength to not lose her s**t, and I think she's really tired. And she's out on her dragon a lot."
Naturally, the comment about her dragon got a lot of cheers. Not only will we be seeing "way more" of the flying, fire-breathing monsters in season 2, but we'll see them fight each other!
Tom Glynn-Carney is Team Green because "we like how naughty they are"
Both Corlys and Rhaenys are supporting Rhaenyra's claim in this war, which means they're part of the Black faction. Over on the Green side of things, Ewan Mitchell talked about the aftermath of Aemond chomping Luke to death on dragonback, which isn't something Aemond technically meant to do; his dragon Vhagar got a little overzealous.
" can either own what he did and return to King's Landing and say that he meant to kill Luke, and become the most wanted man in the realm, or admit what he did was a mistake and plead at the mercy of Rhaenyra," Mitchell said. If you've read the book Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, you know which way he wind will blow. In fact, in the book, so far as we know, Aemond meant to kill Luke; the show introduced an element of ambiguity.
Finally, Tom Glynn-Carney talked about how Aegon is adjusting to his new role as king. "At the start of season 2, we see Aegon getting used to wearing the crown," he said. "He is enjoying how comfortable the Iron Throne is. And he is starting his journey in making sure that the people around the Small Council — the smallfolk of King's Landing and beyond — respect him and understand him. He is the king, and he shall be loved and feared at the same time."
As I said, HBO's marketing for House of the Dragon is leaning into the factionalism; we have separate trailers for Team Black and Team Green. Speaking generally, the characters on Team Black are a little more upstanding than the ones on Team Green, where there are more psychos and schemers per capita. The show could have an uphill battle getting people to root for Aegon and company, but Tom Glynn-Carney is ready to stump for his family: "We're obviously Team Green because we like a bit of spice in our lives," he said. "We like the danger of the Greens. We like how naughty they are, and who doesn't want a bit of naughtiness in their lives?"
House of the Dragon season 2 kicks off on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16.
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