House of the Dragon season 2 leans into "the formula of Game of Thrones"

The second season of House of the Dragon approaches, and the cast and crew are hyping their hearts out. A bunch of them hit the Green Carpet at the premiere in New York City earlier this week and teased why we should tune in.

The first season of House of the Dragon felt like Game of Thrones in that it was about power-hungry royals battling for supremacy, but it distinguished itself from its parent series by drilling down on one family, the Targaryens, and jumping forward in time at several points through the season.

Now that we've met all the characters and a war between Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and her half-brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) seems inevitable, the pacing will slow down. There won't be any more time jumps, but we will explore a lot more of the Seven Kingdoms as the war gets underway. According to Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), that means season 2 feels more like the progenitor show. “This time, I suppose it leans into the formula of Game of Thrones of old, where you’re out exploring different worlds and pockets of the world of Westeros," he told Deadline.

Because the characters are spread out, they won't always share the screen with their season 1 scene partners. Smith and D'Arcy will spend less time together, for instance. “I missed them terribly because I love being around them; not only are they a wonderful actor, they’re a wonderful person to sort of knock about with every day," Smith told The Hollywood Reporter. "So I missed them, but it was what the story required. Daemon is off on his own path trying to figure things out, kind of head first into the dark hole of his own consciousness, into the abyss, and I think Rhaenyra feels a great sense of betrayal.”

As for D'Arcy, they identified grief as "a huge motor of this season"; remember that Rhaenyra lost her son to her enemies at the end of season 1, and she'll be looking for payback. There will be lots of losses on both sides of the war.

D'Arcy was able to tap their own personal experience of grief to explore Rhaenyra's. “I did try to seek the good in being invited to reflect on what grief does to the body, to relationships, to one’s desire, to one’s psyche…,” they said. “Part of the magic the [writing team] has constructed this season just how enmeshed the personal emotion is with the political designs. That for me is when the show really ticked.”

D'Arcy will miss the opportunity to play lots of scenes opposite Smith and Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower), but it sounds like working with the rest of the large cast makes up for it. “There’s so many beautiful actors on the show, it’s an ever-mutating thing. Certainly, I think it’ll make the active viewership kind of more exciting because there are so many parts to the series that I’ve not had the chance to watch yet. So I get to watch as sort of a pure fan, these other narrative strands," D'Arcy said. "[S]hows have to move on, I think that’s what keeps it exciting, and there are different gravitational pulls this season for [Rhaenyra].”

Even Cooke will get to go to some new places in season 2, after spending pretty much the entirety of season 1 inside the Red Keep. “I left the castle. That was huge for me. I went to Spain. I went to Wales and I went to Surrey. I’m excited for people to see me out of the castle," Cooke said.

As for people she won't work with anymore, Cooke will miss Paddy Considine, Alicent's husband and the lord of the Seven Kingdoms who died at the end of season 1. “It was strange, man,” Cooke said. “Paddy is such a big presence and such a formidable actor, and he really brought this gravitas to the Red Keep, and we sort of missed his walking onto set, doing his Alan Partridge impression and using his cane as a baton, twirling it around. He was greatly, greatly missed.”

We'll also spend more time with Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) and her husband Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) in season 2, although apparently their bond is "starting to fracture" on account of "a deep deep deep wound" from their pasts.

Best also hinted that she'll be doing a lot more dragon-riding in season 2. "I was proud of myself, I survived it." It doesn't sound like she enjoyed riding dragons nearly as much as Bethany Antonia, who plays Rhaenys' granddaughter Baela:

"You get to get on a really unglamorous bucking bronco and do some crazy dragon-riding," Baela explained. "It's just mad. And they have these wind machines and all the different sets that make it sunny or windy. It's just epic, it's like making a music video."

Baela is one of several younger characters from the first season who will take on a bigger role in the second. That also includes Baela's fiancée Jacaerys Velaryon, played by Harry Collett. He talked a funeral scene where the cast couldn't stop laughing because the wind kept billowing their costumes back and forth:

And then there's Ewan Mitchell, who plays the intense Aemond Targaryen, who killed Rhaenyra's son Luke (Elliot Grihault) at the end of season 1. Apparently we're going to see "shadow side to him that I think fans will enjoy" in season 2. As if he could get any shadier.

Catch up with these and many other characters when House of the Dragon season 2 premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16!

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