House of the Dragon star Rhys Ifans has no idea what happened to Otto Hightower, either
Otto Hightower, the patriarch of the Green faction of the Targaryen family on House of the Dragon, is MIA for most of season 2…until the end, which raises more questions than it answers.
The second season of House of the Dragon ended on a bunch of cliffhangers. Daemon Targaryen marshaled an army in the Riverlands, an army that seems destined to clash with one being led by Criston Cole. Tyland Lannister brokered an agreement with a fleet of pirates who are sailing for Dragonstone. Alicent Hightower promised Rhaenyra Targaryen that she would hand King’s Landing over to her, and gave her permission to kill her kids. But we won’t see the resolution to any of this until the show returns for its third season, probably sometime in 2026.
One of the most unexpected cliffhangers from the finale involved Alicent’s father Otto Hightower, who had left King’s Landing early in the season for parts unknown, although it was suggested he might travel to his home region of the Reach, which he would try to secure for the faction. Apparently that didn’t go well, because we catch a glimpse of him in the final moments of “The Queen Who Ever Was” in a jail cell.
We have no idea who captured Otto or why. In the show’s source material, the book Fire & Blood by George R.R. Martin, Otto never leaves King’s Landing, so that won’t be any help. Our best guess is that Otto traveled to the Reach and is captured by House Beesbury, one of a few noble houses in that area who have declared themselves loyal to Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen, rather than to Otto’s grandson King Aegon II Targaryen. But that’s just speculation.
Might Rhys Ifans, who plays Otto, know anything more? Apparently not. “I’m an actor, so we’ll be the last people to know what’s going on in our characters,” he told Inverse. “I haven’t been told by anyone with any kind of conviction or authority where exactly he is at that point. All we know is that he’s still alive somewhere in that world, and that’s as much as I know too. I know as much as the fans.”
For the record, the director of the finale episode also doesn’t know what happened to Otto. Apparently it’s a secret that showrunner Ryan Condal is keeping close to his vest. “We find Otto in this cell somewhere, and we don’t know quite where he is or what happened to him,” Condal said on an Inside the Episode featurette. One hopes and assumes there’s a plan in place.
Condal has also said that filming on season 3 will likely begin early in 2025, so Ifans may find out what happened to Otto before too long. The rest of us will likely have to wait until 2026, when new episodes will start airing on HBO and Max. In the meantime, you can see Ifans on the big screen as Martin Moon, whom Wikipedia describes as a “hippie and alien enthusiast” in Vemon: The Last Dance, which is out in theaters now!
