House of the Dragon was a roaring and fiery hit, to say the very least.
That is to say, any worries about the prequel series after the disappointing final Game of Thrones season were quickly dashed. Viewers tuned into the series premiere to such a degree that entire NYC buildings lit up during the live HBO broadcast, and HBO Max servers swiftly and repeatedly crashed. Those numbers held strong all season, and HBO did not hesitate to greenlight Season 2, so we can see the Targaryen house continue to slide further down the towers of King’s Landing and Dragonstone into oblivion. Presumably?
Near extinction is where the house sits at the beginning of Game of Thrones, and the first HotD season got all the time-jump and casting shakeups out of the way. Now, we should be able to look forward to approximately three more seasons of the doom sliding, but what can we expect for Season 2?
Plot
The below image paints a vivid picture of how f*cked up that Team Green move turned out in the Season 1 finale.
Vhagar’s hangry face sets everything back in motion, and Aemond screwed up by trying to scare Luke (and Arrax) with a dragon that Aemond clearly cannot control. As a result, Rhaenyra’s revenge face did not bode well for departure from the George R.R. Martin source material (the Fire and Blood book) with a quick reconciliation. Nope, Team Black (along with House Velaryon dominating the seas) will go to war against Team Green/the Hightower bunch beginning with Season 2, Episode 1, aptly titled “A Son For A Son.”
Surely, that doesn’t mean that we will be saying goodbye to Aemond so soon? Ewan Mitchell is highly amusing in this role, especially while prompting many giggles as Aemond strives to be just like his Uncle Daemon. I suspect that the episode title could actually be a reference to when Aemond lost his eye and later wanted to take a Targaryen peeper in return. And unfortunately, he did much more than that to Luke.
However, what we do know for sure is that the Dance of the Dragons shall commence. This will be a contentious and highly deadly war, especially after Team Black and Team Green both crowned their own monarchs (Rhaenyra and Aegon II, respectively). If we’re going on sheer leadership ability so far, then Team Black should have had this in the bag. Yet due to Alicent “misunderstanding” King Viserys’ dying words, Aegon now has a shot at ruining the kingdom because he has zero leadership skills and didn’t even want to be king until he received obligatory cheers.
How does Daemon figure into this power play? He was behaving himself at the end of Season 1, but that cannot last for long. What will last for awhile, however, are the Season 2 episodes, which will regularly run more than one hour in length. We should see plenty of dragon fights from the Hightowers and Targaryens along with sea-level action from the Velaryon bunch. As well, Vhagar might be the biggest and oldest dragon, yet that might not matter much for Team Green since Aemond isn’t a very skilled dragon rider.
Cast
The adult versions of this series’ main characters shall return for Season 2. That means Emma D’Arcy (Rhaenyra Targaryen) and Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower) will be at odds again, along with Ewan Mitchell (Aemond Targaryen) and Tom Glynn-Carney (Aegon Targaryen). Original returning actors include Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), Eve Best (Rhaenys Targaryen), Sonoya Mizuno (Mysaria/that White Worm), Steve Toussaint (Corlys “Sea Snake” Valaryon), Fabien Frankel (Ser Criston Cole the terrible), and Rhys Ifans (Otto Hightower). Unless we see Viserys’ ghost (RIP) return for a cameo, we won’t be seeing Paddy Considine.
Oh, and don’t forget all of the dragons we’ve met so far (RIP to Arrax, too), along with a few new additions.
Release Date
Summer 2024, baby! Fortunately, the show was not affected by either the WGA or SAG-AFTRA strikes because scripts were already finished when filming began, and the production takes place in Europe. A two-year turnaround ain’t bad, especially considering the more glacial pace of Game of Thrones‘ later seasons, for such a sizable and CGI-accented production.
Trailer
No trailers exist as of yet, but you had better believe that when one drops, we will be all over it here.
HBO’s first ‘House of the Dragon’ season can currently be streamed on Max.