House of the Dragon Cast Teases Season 2 at NYC Premiere: ‘We’re All Nervous Hoping People Like It’ (Exclusive)
Season 2 of ‘House of the Dragon’ premieres June 16 on Max
It’s time to head back to Westeros.
On Monday, June 3, the cast of House of the Dragon stepped out for the season 2 premiere at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City as fans continue to eagerly await the war between dragons that’s brewing between Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) and Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).
Matt Smith (Prince Daemon Targaryen), Fabien Frankel (Criston Cole), Tom Glynn-Carney (King Aegon II Targaryen), Ewan Mitchell (Prince Aemond Targaryen), Harry Collett (Prince Jacaerys), and Steve Toussaint (Lord Corlys Velaryon) were also among cast members in attendance at the premiere.
While speaking to PEOPLE at the event, Glynn-Carney discussed King Aegon’s “unexpected” ascent to the Iron Throne, admitting he was “thrown into the fray, headfirst, unable to swim.”
“So yeah, he’s floundering. But also, there is a guise of his that he’s trying to wear it well. He’s got a bit of a spring in his step. He’s also walking two inches taller than he would do, I think. For the start anyway,” the actor says of his character trajectory this season and his learning curve on the throne.
“He’s finding it exciting. It’s the first time we’ve seen Aegon with purpose. He’s never had purpose before. He gets p—–, he stays in bed until midday, he gets p—– again and he does the same thing the next day. So this is the first time he’s had a reason to get out of bed and he’s a family man now, or the closest to his version of a family man,” Glynn-Carney adds.
Meanwhile, Prince Aemond Targaryen actor Mitchell talks to PEOPLE about being “the most wanted man in the realm” come season 2. He adds of the dynamic between him and his brother Aegon who is king, “I think Aemond, although he was the second son, he wished he was treated as the first, but ultimately he’s the spare.”
“He’s the one who goes out and fights the war. He feels that Aegon lacks the perseverance to be king. He was the one who squandered his inheritance and Aemond, he was training with Criston Cole in the Red Keep yard. So yeah, they’re very different, but maybe they need each other.”
Lord Corlys “The Sea Snake” Velaryon actor Toussaint tells PEOPLE there hasn’t been a “different vibe on set” given that fans are now invested and familiar with the series ahead of season 2.
“In the process, at the beginning, as we rehearsed, yes, there was talk about, ‘Oh my God, we did so well, oh my God,’ ” the actor shares.
“But actually once you get down to the actual acting, the job is the job because we can’t play people’s expectations. It’s like anything else, we’re all nervous now because we’re hoping that people like it. We think that we’ve done a good job, but it’s possible the audience might just go, ‘Oh my God, what have you done?’ ” he adds.
“So we couldn’t be concerned about that when we were on set, you just try and tell the truth and then you leave it to the Gods.”
Season 2 will see Westeros fall into a “very bloody feast,” as showrunner Ryan Condal told Entertainment Weekly in 2022 following the first season’s finale.
“I’m really interested in picking up with all of those characters that we spent all of this time introducing, particularly Rhaenyra and Alicent’s families, and seeing what happens now that we’ve flipped the chessboard over and spilled the pieces on the ground,” Condal said of how season 2 will dive into the feud between the Targaryens and the Hightowers.
He said season 2 will “feel much more like a middle season — season 3-6 of Game of Thrones — in terms of its scope and breadth and the number of characters.”
House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin’s 2018 novel, Fire and Blood, and takes place 200 years before the events of the original HBO series.
In anticipation of the new season, HBO brought fans into the growing tensions as the premium channel asked them to pick a side and released two dueling trailers: the “Black trailer,” which told Rhaenyra’s side of the story, and the “Green trailer,” which follows the Alicent’s son’s ascent to the throne.
Regardless of which trailer a fan chose to watch, a ruthless and bloody war between the houses — and their dragons — was promised, as season 2 picks up shortly after the tragic events that concluded the first season, and left Rhaenyra and Daemon grieving the death of their young son, Prince Lucerys Velaryon (Elliot Grihault), at the hands of Alicent’s son Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).
“Westeros is on the brink of a bloody civil war with the Green and Black councils fighting for King Aegon and Queen Rhaenyra, respectively, as each side believes theirs to be the rightful seat to the Iron Throne,” reads a synopsis for the season from a press release.
