New House of the Dragon image shows Aemond Targaryen at [SPOILER]

Lately, HBO has been hyping up the second season of House of the Dragon with a lot of new interviews and promotional videos, including ones like this, where the cast members debate who gives the fewer amount of f**ks: the mercurial Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) or his brooding nephew Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell):

Videos like this are fun, but they can also hide secrets about what's coming. As the actors talk, we see snippets of behind-the-scenes footage from season 2, including this intriguing shot of Aemond walking through what looks like a forest on fire:

What is our favorite one-eyed vengeance monster doing in this scene? We'll tell you, but beware SPOILERS below:

New House of the Dragon image shows Aemond Targaryen at Battle of Rook's Rest

When last we left Aemond Targaryen, he had just killed his nephew Luke on dragonback, enflaming the tensions between Aemond's brother Aegon, who sits the Iron Throne, and his sister Rhaenyra, who has a claim to the Iron Throne. If she wasn't willing to press that claim before, she certainly is now. This means war.

And thus begins a brutal conflict known as the Dance of the Dragons, where rival branches of the Targaryen dynasty — known as the Blacks and the Greens — fight for dominance. We'll see how that goes in season 2. One of the biggest early clashes is the Battle of Rook's Rest. In summary, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) marches an army to the castle of Rook's Rest, which is loyal to Rhaenyra. Rhaenyra sends reinforcements to help fight back the Greens, and things get absoultely nuts.

Again, I won't say exactly what happens for fear of spoiling people, but the cast and crew spent a long time filming this battle scene last year in and around Bourne Woods in Surrey, England. At one point, Aemond Targaryen shows up on his dragon Vhagar, the oldest and largest dragon alive. We saw actor Ewan Mitchell in costume on the ground as well, so he won't spend all his time in the air.

The shot of Aemond from the video is almost definitely from the Battle of Rook's Rest, which is coming in Episode 4. This will be the first major battle on House of the Dragon that we can compare to some of the huge battle scenes from Game of Thrones, like the Battle of the Blackwater or the Battle of the Bastards, so expectations are high.

That HBO video actually gave us lots of little looks behind the scenes. For instance, here are a few shots of Critson Cole (I wouldn't be surprised if these were also from the Battle of Rook's Rest)...

...and some of Daemon Targaryen, who doesn't take part in the battle, at least not in George R.R. Martin's book Fire & Blood:

House of the Dragon season 2 premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 13.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and Twitter account, sign up for our exclusive newsletter and check out our YouTube channel.