Watch how House of the Dragon's gorgeous dragons were made in new visual effects reel

House of the Dragon season 2 may have ended, but we're still feasting on morsels of behind-the-scenes footage and production details weeks later. One of the latest tidbits comes from Rodeo FX, a digital effects company which worked on the show. They've just released a breakdown of some of the effects work they did for season 2, which includes shots of Baela Targaryen's dragon Moondancer, the Wall, the towering buildings of King's Landing, Jacaerys Velaryon's dragon Vermax, and the huge dragon Silverwing.

It's always interesting to get a glimpse behind the curtain for these effects-heavy prestige TV shows, and that's doubly true for a show groundbreaking effects like House of the Dragon. Watch below:

Rodeo FX shows how Baela Targaryen and Ulf White's dragon moments were made

There's a lot of good stuff in this reel, but what stood out the most to me was Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) flying on her dragon Moondancer. During the season's third episode, "The Burning Mill," Baela spots Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel) and a small group of knights while she's out scouting on her dragon. She chases after them in a breathtaking sequence that combines close-ups of actor Antonia with sweeping shots of the countryside, and of course plentiful shots of Moondancer.

It's common knowledge at this point that House of the Dragon utilizes a large soundstage with an animatronic buck mount to film actors on dragonback, but it's still very cool to see how that actual soundstage footage fits together with the dragon CGI. Special effects also livened up the landscape, turning it into the misty countryside we saw in the finished episode.

There's plenty else to ogle in the reel. Many shots in King's Landing were filmed on location in Cáceres, Spain, and then expanded by adding in digitally created extensions of tall buildings. The Wall featured a bit of soundstage work for the people standing on top, which was then shrunk down and superimposed onto the grand structure we see in the show. The river and landscape surrounding the Twins were also digitally created on a massive soundstage. As for the dragon Silverwing, the reel shows not only the big soundstage where Ulf White (Tom Bennett) first approaches her, but also the dragon's flight over King's Landing.

There simply aren't that many shows on television which pull off the sorts of effects that House of the Dragon. Now I'm itching to rewatch it all over again!

Both seasons of House of the Dragon are currently available on Max. Season 3 is expected to start filming sometime next year, which means we'll probably be watching it in 2026.

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