House of the Dragon star Ewan Mitchell has never seen Game of Thrones, and that's okay

Ewan Mitchell only played Aemond Targaryen for a few episodes at the end of House of the Dragon season 1, but he made an impression. It's hard not to when you accidentally kill your own nephew in the finale. Even before that, Mitchell radiated intensity as the young, one-eyed Targaryen prince, a dragon-riding megalomaniac who was first in line for the Iron Throne in his mind, even if he's technically behind his older brother Aegon.

In interviews, Mitchell sounds committed to making Aemond as memorable a character as possible. "There are cogs turning behind his eyes, he told ComicBook.com. "You're not too sure which way he's going to go. I love how Aemond continually challenges the audience of what you think about him. In those last three scenes of season one, I wanted to create a character who was just complete darkness only to contradict that at the end of the series when you see that face of regret on Aemond, and recognizing that was a mistake. Going into season two, you are gonna see other moments like that that are quite unexpected. It's encoded in Aemond's DNA to a certain extent to surprise people."

Just how surprising are we talking? Well, Mitchell also said he took inspiration from Michael Myers, the masked serial killer who's been murderering teenagers on the big screen since the '70s. "Just through his physicality, you know, no matter how slow he walks, he always catches up with Jamie Lee Curtis. You know, he doesn't have to say much. He's just super scary. The way he inhabits space was something that I used with Aemond for sure."

Why Ewan Mitchell (Aemond Targaryen) hasn't watched Game of Thrones

Mitchell is taking inspiration from the most surprising of places. But one place he didn't draw from was Game of Thrones, the show that House of the Dragon is spun off from.

"I haven't seen the original Game of Thrones," Mitchell admitted. "I have a confession to make. I've never seen it and I didn't want to watch it going into this role. I didn't want it to inform my decisions in any way, shape, or form, you know, whether it be consciously or subconsciously. I wanted to bring something fresh. Aemond is one of a kind, you know."

Lots of actors over the years have given variations on this kind of answer: "I didn't watch/read the source material because I didn't want to influence my performance." A lot of the time, I wonder if they're covering for the fact that they just couldn't be bothered, which is fine by me. But given how seriously Mitchell seems to be taking this role, I'm inclined to believe him. Can we not say he's brought "something fresh" to the screen? Or to the pre-show run-up, for that matter. Look what the guy was wearing at the London premiere of season 2:

Whatever he needs to do to maintain his weird brain, I think he should do. We'll see Mitchell in action when House of the Dragon season 2 premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16.

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