We’re still more than a year—even factoring in the nebulous flow of time usually observed in the vicinity of author George R.R. Martin—away from the release of HBO’s prequel series to its unprecedented tits-and-dragons hit Game Of Thrones, House Of The Dragon. But pre-production on the series is moving forward all the same, with Variety reporting a couple of major casting moves on the Targaryen-focused prequel, bringing some serious TV ringers into the mix in the process.
Specifically, the series has just added Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, and Emma D’Arcy to its roster of past-based dragon fans, with the The Crown and Doctor Who star playing Prince Daemon, who sounds like a pretty classic Targaryen Bad Boy type: A “peerless warrior and a dragonrider” who is also, you know…Murderously psychopathic? (The implication is there, anyway.) Cooke, meanwhile—fresh off her performance in Amazon’s Sound Of Metal—will play Alicent Hightower, described in press materials as “the most comely woman in the Seven Kingdoms.” (And, hey, HBO: It’s 2020 and/or past dragon times; can we not get past describing female characters first and foremost in terms of their comeliness?) Fans of Martin’s extremely well-documented history of this period of Westeros history will know, though, that Lady Hightower pretty quickly becomes Queen Alicent, helping to kick off the infamous Dance Of Dragons that the show will presumably be building towards.
Speaking of: D’Arcy, a well-known stage actress, will be supplying another major spark in that particular conflagration, playing Targaryen heir Princess Rhaenyra, also a dragonrider and all around badass. The conflict between Alicent and Rhaenyra, first under the watch of Paddy Considine’s King Viserys, and then, uh, not, provides most of the fuel for the brewing battles ahead. (And if you need to know more than that, well, there is a book—or you could just wait until 2022, when House Of The Dragon is expected to arrive at HBO.)
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I am sure it will be underwatched and hopefully canceled soon. No idea why anyone would want to further distend the once proud legacy that the final season utterly obliterated.
Let’s be honest: season 7 sucked too, and season 6 was a major drag until the very end, when it suddenly promised the drama and unpredictability of the early seasons (a promise that went entirely unfulfilled).
It did, but I can forgive some turbulence as long as the pilots don’t crash the plane.
Winter’s coming…eventually.
There’s some good story there if you know the basics from the book. Should have all the palace intrigue and backstabbing that people liked about GoT, and plenty of dragons. As far as I remember not as much supernatural goings on – less chance to jump the shark. I’m not a Matt Smith fan and I was looking forward to who they cast as Daemon, so this is a bit of a let down. But I’m still feeling good that it can recapture the good aspects of GoT.
So they’re just doing the Dance of Dragons, which we not only got a telling of in the lore and histories features but a separate animated version I believe though I could be wrong.This is dumb, straight up trying to appeal to the hardcore nerd bait lore fan to get them to subscribe to HBOMax in hopes it’s exactly the words on the page. I don’t think I’ll ever understand the mindset of someone who just wants to see what they’ve read exactly.
Not mad at the show but upvoted for the last part. It’s know it’s a minority opinion, but if we’re going to adapt everything all the time, I prefer if liberties are taken.
If you merged the first two faces you’d get the third face.
A bit surprised HBO’s still going ahead with this, since it’s currently de rigueur to deny that Game of Thrones was ever good
All I want is for HBO to back a dump truck of money onto Maisie Williams’s front lawn to make Arya Stark Sailin’ & Fightin’ ‘round the World, and I know I’m never going to get it, which sucks. Not ony because Arya rules, but because the best thing this series could do is go waaaaay beyond Westeros & show us what else this magical planet has going on.