The first official teaser has been revealed for the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, which is slated for a 2022 release.
Based on author George R.R. Martin’s Fire and Blood, the series, which is set 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, tells the story of House Targaryen.
Production on the new series began in April 2021 and includes two new dragons alongside actors Paddy Considine, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, and Fabien Frankel.
On May 6, 2021, first-look photos for the House of the Dragon set were released featuring D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen; Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon; and Cooke as Alicent Hightower and Ifans as Otto Hightower.
Cooke has said that Queen Hightower is “very complex” and that “people are gonna want to see the worst in her.”
“What’s amazing about Game of Thrones, like we saw in the past series, is that one season, you hate a character, and the next, you absolutely love them and will go to the ends of the earth for them,” she Collider.
“You just don’t know what you’re gonna get with these characters. They’re so well-written. Such is the human condition, you can do some horrendous things, but then you can also do some wonderful things as well. It’s very complex, and it’s not black and white at all.”
The newly released teaser features the first official footage from the highly anticipated series, and contains the previously announced cast members, in addition to the newly revealed cast which includes Wil Johnson as Ser Vaemond Velaryon, younger brother to Corlys Velaryon and commander in the Velaryon navy and John Macmillan as Ser Laenor Velaryon, son of Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen.
Savannah Steyn as Lady Laena Velayron, daughter of Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen and Theo Nate as Ser Laenor Velaryon, son of Corlys Velaryon and Rhaenys Targaryen have also been added to the prequel.
Author George R.R. Martin is involved in House of the Dragon, meaning his attention has been diverted once more from writing the next instalment in the series of books that made him a household name and spawned the award-winning HBO series — much to the disappointment of fans who have been not-so-patiently waiting for the novel.
House of the Dragon is one of many GoT spinoffs that are in the works, including a stage show that will apparently “take audiences deeper behind the scenes of a landmark event that previously was shrouded in mystery.”
Martin, who is working alongside award-winning playwright Duncan MacMillan to bring the production to life, said in a statement, “The seeds of war are often planted in times of peace. Few in Westeros knew the carnage to come when highborn and smallfolk alike gathered at Harrenhal to watch the finest knights of the realm compete in a great tourney, during the Year of the False Spring.
“It is a tourney oft referred during HBO’s Game of Thrones, and in my novels, A Song of Ice & Fire … and now, at last, we can tell the whole story… on the stage.”
Check out the first trailer for House of the Dragon below:
House of the Dragon is currently in production and will premiere on FOXTEL in 2022.
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