How Alyn and Addam of Hull will bridge the class divide in House of the Dragon

Back in the day, the second season of Game of Thrones took the already-large cast introduced in the first season and blew it up. We met newcomers like Stannis, Davos, Brienne and Melisandre, all of whom would play important roles straight through to the end of the story. The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon will be much the same. We've met major players like Rhaenyra Targaryen, Daemon Targaryen and Alicent Hightower. Now it's time to shake up that dynamic with the arrival of new characters like Addam and Alyn of Hull, brothers living on the isle of Driftmark.

Without giving away any big spoilers, Alyn and Addam have a relationship with Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint), the uber-wealthy head of House Velaryon and Queen Rhaenyra's top advisor in the wars to come. “Yes, that is certainly a new dynamic,” Toussaint hinted to Entertainment Weekly. “One of the things that Corlys is having to deal with is past indiscretions coming back to haunt him." They're peasants who end up finding a seat at the high table usually reserved for high lords and ladies, breaking up the blue blood party the show had going in season 1.

"We're so used to dealing with the upper echelons of society in this story, and they are always trying to climb to be part of that society, whereas Alyn doesn't care," said actor Abubakar Salim, who plays Alyn. "He just does his job. He knows what he's good at and he knows what he wants. He cares not for those people who are sitting in their little thrones because that was crushed the day he was born."

This fits with what showrunner Ryan Condal wants for the series going forward: to mix things up. "The first season was so much about the royal family, that 1 percent of the upper 1 percent that rules this world. All the people in the show that had POVs essentially had silver hair," he told EW the other month. "What I think was missing from season 1 — not by omission, it was simply because it was not relevant to the story — is more common folk, the small folk of this world, that bring a certain color and texture. A lot of the fun and the conflict and the humor that came out of the original Game of Thrones was thrusting high nobility into a room with Bronn [Jerome Flynn] or the Hound [Rory McCann]." 

Everyone will start bouncing off each other when when House of the Dragon season 2 premires on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16. And for a more spoiler-y explanation of what's up with Alyn and Addam of Hull, check out our complete spoiler guide below:

[MUST LINK 'EVERY SPOILER WE KNOW' POST GOING UP 5/18]

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