House Of The Dragon Cast Breaks Down Big Moments From The Season 2 Premiere & Beyond

Warning: Spoilers for House of the Dragon‘s season 2 premiere.

Summary

• House of the Dragon
  season
  
  2 focuses on royal conflict, with new characters like Cregan Stark introduced.
• The season premiere includes the Blood and Cheese plotline previously predicted by fans, and it is filled with action and emotion.
• Screen Rant interviewed the cast and showrunner during a roundtable session to discuss character growth and challenges in the new season.

House of the Dragon season 2 has finally arrived, picking up after an explosive finale last year. With the conflict between the Greens and Blacks firmly established, there’s now a full-blown war brewing for the throne. Almost the entire cast (save for the actors playing younger versions of characters before the time jump) has returned, including Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen, Olivia Cooke as Alicent Hightower, and Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole.

Alongside the ongoing royal conflict, season 2 introduces several new characters into the world, including Cregan Stark, a past Iink to the Stark beloved Stark family. The season premiere also includes a plotline fans of the books have been predicting for a while: the inclusion of assassins Blood and Cheese. Season 2 kicks off with plenty of action and emotional turbulence, and things are only just beginning.

Screen Rant interviewed several members of the cast in a series of roundtable interviews, including Smith, Frankel, Cooke, Phia Saban, Ewan Mitchell, and many more, as well as showrunner Ryan Condal, to discuss the new season of House of the Dragon.

Eve Best & Steve Toussaint On Corlys and Rhaenys’ Emotional Maturity

Screen Rant: Your pairing is arguably the most stable and emotionally mature one on the show. What has it been like forming that dynamic for two characters where the whole world is so chaotic, where they are trying to remain healthy and normal together?

Steve Toussaint: It’s great that it happens, because you look at the others and you go, “Well, he married his niece, and he’s with his sister.” So it’s a low bar. But I think when we first met and we were having discussions with Ryan [Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik], who were our co-show runners – now just Ryan – one of the first questions we asked was, “Is this union political, strategic, or is it love?” And they were very quick to say, “No, this is a love thing,” which pleased me, because I wanted that to be that. I wanted that in this crazy world that we’re in two people just meet and like each other and get together and like to be around each other.

So we have tried to keep that spirit throughout all of the scenes; I think we’ve managed to do that. In season 2, as Eve has mentioned, there are small cracks appearing. All is not well in paradise, but I don’t think all is lost. It can be fixed, if particularly Corlys is prepared to do the work. Normally what he does is, “Oh my God, it’s getting too emotional. I’m gonna go on my boat and I’ll see you in six years, because then you’ll have forgotten what it was.” But he can’t when we meet him this time – he’s injured, his boat is in a state of repair. So he is forced to…

Eve Best: He’s got to stay in the room and have the conversation. [Laughs]

Steve Toussaint: But the other part of the question, the question that we get asked a lot is, “How did you work on the chemistry?” And I constantly try to think of an exotic answer.

Eve Best: Vigorous lovemaking. [Laughs]

Steve Toussaint: At the end of it, you’re like, “What’s your name again?” [Laughs] But no, to be honest, the truth of it is we just liked each other, and it just seems to work on screen, and I’m really happy. Do you remember the spontaneous hug?

Eve Best: Yes, the first thing that happened, standing by the coffee table. And you know, those first days, everybody’s really nervous, and you’re doing a big read through and everything, don’t quite know where to put yourself. And I just knew that a significant part of the show for me it was going to be my husband. Who was this guy? What was he going to be like? Are we going to get on? And we were standing by the coffee table, and both looked at each other, and I think you said, “I’m a hugger.” We just gave each other a huge hug. And I think we both said, “I’m sure they really get on, don’t they?”

Steve Toussaint: Yes, thankfully, so it was a happy accident.

Something else that I feel sets your characters apart from a lot of other ones in the show is they seem to have a little bit more of a conscience. What do you think makes it easier for them to actually wish to learn from their mistakes instead of just blindly pursuing the throne, like so many other people they know are doing?

Steve Toussaint: Well Corlys, he makes that same mistake for at least six or seven episodes of season one. And then when he comes back from his almost fatal wounding, he’s kind of like, “Oh, it was my ambition that caused all of this. Let’s stop.” But do you remember the speech that you did in episode 1 when there’s the big jousting? And you talk about something like, “These boys have never been to war, and they’re bashing each other’s heads in.” That’s the clue to the fact that these people have seen what real war is.

And I have had this with people, with servicemen, who have actually seen real combat, they often say, “If you’ve actually seen it, you don’t want it.” Our world tends to be an awful lot of – and it’s usually men – older men ordering young men into battle, because the older men are gonna stay at home. They’re not having to deal with it. But if you’ve seen it, you know it’s the last resort. And I that’s one of the things certainly about Corlys, as one of the things that ran through my mind all the time we were doing all of those roundtable scenes in season one, that he’s like you, “None of you have actually been there.” As he says to to Daemon in episode two, “All of these people, they were given their fortune, but we have to make ours.” And I think that’s one of the things that sets them apart, that idea.

Eve Best: It’s such an interesting question. I just think about talking to my grandparents, my grandmother, all my grandparents, and yours too I expect. And maybe some of you as well, you know people who went through the Second World War. The weight of what those people carried, what they went through, what they experienced, what they did for us and generations below was just sort of – you can’t put it into words.

It’s more than a question of conscience, in a way, it’s just automatic. You’re programmed not to want that level of destruction again, or to witness it. And because, exactly, these are the only two characters left in the series by season two who’ve actually experienced that firsthand. And in particular, the moment in the end of season 1, when she chooses not to nuke all the greens, which she could do, it’s precisely for that reason that she understands the potential weight of what she could be unleashing. In the end, also, it’s the compassionate choice, it’s the choice of the mother and the woman who recognizes the mother in Alicent, who recognizes the children, and who knows that there’s a better way forward.

Matthew Needham Teases Larys Character Growth & Big Conflicts

Screen Rant: Online, I’ve seen a lot of fans comparing Larys and Littlefinger from Game of Thrones when it comes to his adeptness at royal manipulation. Do you consider the characters to be similar?

Matthew Needham: Yeah, I hear that. I’ve gotta be honest, I haven’t seen all of Game of Thrones, so I feel really bad discussing another person’s work and character because I don’t think I’m going to do a service. But obviously, enough people have mentioned that, and if that’s in people’s heads, then of course. But I think Larys comes from a long line of bastards [Laughs], let’s say that. So of course, but I also think he’s his own thing, and I’m excited to explore more aspects of him in this season.

You mentioned that this season you’re excited to get into more aspects of Larys’ character. Can you expand a little bit on what you meant by that and maybe what fans can expect?

Matthew Needham: Well, I really loved the first series, but there was a lot that didn’t make it – understandably, because you’re covering 30 years. But there’s a slight feeling that you kind of always saw Larys after the fact. And I know the writers loved the idea of the audience having to work backward and sort of piece together, “How did we get to this heinous situation?” That’s fun for a series, just the abracadabra-ness of him, but I kind of want to see him doing the magic trick in real time now, and failing, and having to adapt and improvise.

And I was excited to do that this series, to see him really having to think. Because he fails a lot, and the board is sort of moving. He makes a move, and it doesn’t work out and you see him having to change tack and to survive, and you get more of a sense of how his brain works and what he’s made of. So that I was excited to explore, because it’s much more fun to play against obstacles.

Obviously, Larys has people that he is on the side of, people that he’s against. But do you think your character feels any genuine, complete 100% loyalty to anyone in his life?

Matthew Needham: Probably the only people who felt loyalty to are dead, and he killed them, ironically. [Laughs] So it doesn’t make any sense, does it? I don’t think so. I think it’s quite a lonely life. At least I don’t think he has loyalty to anyone at the moment, but I think it’s great to have the potential for that change. I think that I don’t think he’s without empathy, I don’t think he’s without feeling, so that can change.

Obviously, over the years, Larys has gotten better at manipulation and getting what he wants from the royalty around him. But who in his life do you think gives him the most trouble when it comes to achieving what he has his sights set on?

Matthew Needham: His family in the first series, Harwin was a big obstacle, because Highwind would just protect him, and they were like a sort of block to his life. So eradicating them was like shedding his skin. Though there hasn’t really been anyone standing in his way, but that’s about change in a big way. There’s lots of people standing in his way in this series, and you see him having to navigate around them.

Ewan Mitchell Revels In Aemond’s Kinslayer Title

Screen Rant: I’ve read that you consistently listen to hard rock and heavy metal music on set. How do you feel that helped you get into character and better portray Aemond the way you want to?

Ewan Mitchell: I mean, it’s also my choice of music as well, but I think it’s super provocative and some of it can certainly be really angry. It can kind of stir the fire in the belly for me as an actor. And Aemond, he kind of looks rock and roll, as well. It’s like a heavy metal music video. It’s kind of part and parcel in that regard.

Aemond begins this season established as a kinslayer. Do you think that’s a title that he revels in more than he resents?

Ewan Mitchell: Maybe. I think there was certainly a romantic element of it for Aemond. I think he thinks about what a young Daemon Targaryen would want, and that’s what he would want as well. There’s this idea, Daemon was this close to getting Aemond. He set up Blood and Cheese into the Red Keep to find Aemond. It’s like your biggest hero, he really wants to kill you, but he can’t or he’s too afraid to do it himself. And there’s something romantic Aemond finds in it, because he’s Daemon’s biggest stan. [Laughs] He really wants to best him.

We were just talking to Harry Collett a little bit ago about what filming the dragon riding scenes is like, and how you can get motion-sick. Your character has had some of the most dragon-riding scenes in the series. What has your experience been with that?

Ewan Mitchell: It’s been super, super immersive. I love the dragon sequences, especially in season one in the skies above Storm’s End and Shipbreaker Bay. When you’ve got the rain machine and the wind. We utilize The Volume, which was made famous by the Disney’s The Mandalorian series. It projects a video game engine around you, so you can really react to the environment, and it gives you something to react to as an actor which is way more lucrative than just the green screen. Just super immersive, and it’s probably the closest you’ll ever get to riding a dragon in real life. It kind of takes a toll on the body, for sure. I did go to the gym in preparation for riding it.

How do you prepare for that?

Ewan Mitchell: I adopted kind of like a jockey position for riding Vhagar. You have to put your full body into it, Vhagar is a big beast, you really do need to push it, really shout the commands as well. And put your full body into it, because she’s a big creature.

You mentioned in this season perhaps another side of Aemond coming out, and I feel like we have seen flashes of that. It’s very interesting, because there are scenes where you can see him having an emotional reaction that he’s actively tamping down at the same time. What is that process for you like as an actor to make it clear that’s happening, but it’s so subtle?

Ewan Mitchell: Yeah, I love the moments of silence in film and TV, letting the audience project their own kind of theory on things and their own story. I love that it’s similar to answering all the questions. If you answer all of them, then everyone will stop asking the questions, and so I like to leave those little seeds out there. I think that’s interesting, because Aemond, he’s thinking.

He could be looking at someone and thinking about how he wants to take them out on a date, or he could be looking at them and he could be thinking how he wants to make them food, but you don’t know what it is. But you do know that he is thinking, he’s not this mindless psychopath or sociopath. There are cogs turning behind his eyes. I think that’s what makes it a compelling watch; figuring out what it is, where his allegiance lies, where his loyalties are.

House Of The Dragon’s Ryan Condal Celebrates More Freedom In Season 2

Screen Rant: Season 1, out of necessity, had a lot of setting up to do in terms of the characters and main conflict of the show. Now that that conflict is firmly established, what have you been able to do differently in season 2 when it comes to storytelling?

Ryan Condal: Well, I think season one of any show is exposition, it just has to naturally be. It’s how you disguise it and fold it into the narrative, hopefully in a way that it doesn’t feel like you’re spoon-feeding people information. I think the reward now, season two, is having gone through the experience of writing and making and watching season one, we know who these characters are. We know where they’re coming from, we know their hopes, wants, dreams, weaknesses, strengths, and all those things.

So we can tell a narrative in real-time without having to backfill a bunch of information, so that naturally the pace of the story and the shorthand of it can really start moving its feet. I think you’ll see that right out of the first episode, and that’s an incredibly freeing place to be, I think, as a writer and a storyteller, because it really lets you move the narrative along at quite a pace.

For a long time, in terms of season 2, fans have been theorizing about the Blood and Cheese storyline finally coming into the show. Did you feel any particular sort of pressure when doing the adaptation of that scene because there was so much fan anticipation behind it?

Ryan Condal: Sure. In many ways, anticipation is great, but also you can never deliver exactly on people’s expectations. Especially when there’s so many people who read these books, and then have this particular sort of interpretation or vision of what the thing is. So you just try to make a good version that works for an audience that has read the book and hasn’t read the book.

I think that’s the thing that we’re always trying to stay on through this is that we can’t just assume that the audience has all read the books and is deeply and intimately familiar with it, because a lot of the people that are going to come to the show, will not engage with the book, just as with the original series. So we’re just trying to tell a good story that honors the narrative that we’ve set up with the characters that we’ve been following through the show thus far.

This season also introduces a lot of really pivotal characters, including a link to the Stark family. When you were adapting that character for the show, what were the most important elements of Cregan that you wanted to make sure came through from the books?

Ryan Condal: We don’t really know much about him, because he’s drawn as kind of an archetype in the book, because it’s a history. It’s just the nature of the narrative. I think the thing that fascinated me the most was seeing a young Stark in charge of the kingdom. The famous Starks that we’ve encountered in the narrative, of course, Ned Stark, the elder statesman. He has five children. He’s the salty, old veteran, and he has all the wise Obi-Wan Kenobi advice to give to everybody. And then Torrhen Stark, the other King in the North, who again, we also don’t know much about, because he’s sort of an archetype as written the book. But we know he’s older.

The fun of this was seeing a guy Rob Stark’s age, or Jon Snow’s age in charge of the entire north, and the burden on his shoulders and how he weighs that up. And then his interaction with Jace – who even though Jace is a bit younger than him, they are peers of a time – and seeing how really, the fate of the kingdom rests on the shoulders of boys, and I think that was the thing that interested me about that sequence. And seeing how mature Cregan is, literally carrying the burden of the North on his shoulders in the form of ice, I just love that sequence, and I love how it came together.

Olivia Cooke & Phia Saban Talk Patriarchy And Prophecies

Olivia, the duties that both your character and Ser Criston Cole’s character have are so big in terms of the kingdom in general. I’m curious now with this relationship, do you feel like there’s been a power balance shift at all between the two of them?

Olivia Cooke: For sure. I think Alicent has really weakened herself by submitting to Criston. I think she was almost this deity for him, and now the mystique is sort of over when you have sex with someone and when you embark on a relationship. And I think the love that he has for her is strengthened massively, but I think he becomes infected by the men around her, and his chivalry takes over and she feels like Alicent needs to be protected and made ignorant to the plans that they’re concocting.

And this is just another way that the patriarchy is working against Alicent, and her eyes become open to how this really isn’t working for her anymore, and the indoctrination that her father sort of imparted on her is starting to crumble away.

Phia, there are all these fan theories online about your character and her prophetic abilities. What was it like for you seeing these and knowing the answer to these things people are posing?

Phia Saban: I don’t even know if I would say I necessarily know the answer. I see it as one of the cool things about it, is that you can have literal translations of the feelings that she has, the instincts that come up, things she says, but I also think they work on lots of different levels. Like with, “Beware the beast beneath the boards,” there’s the literal Rhaenys coming up through the dragon pit. But then there’s also like, “Beware the beast inside of me, beware the beast in my family, beware the shadow, beware like this energy that’s happening.”

Olivia Cooke: Beware the spies.

Phia Saban: Exactly. I think she’s really intuitive and just extremely uneasy and doesn’t feel safe a lot of the time, so I think it speaks to all of that. So I really like and welcome people’s interpretations.

Matt Smith & Fabien Frankel Reflect On Their Characters’ Inner Demons

Screen Rant: Fabien, I am curious if you feel like there’s been any shift in the power balance between Alicent and Ser Criston Cole because of the change in their relationship.

Fabien Frankel: Well, I think as soon as you engage in a sort of physical relationship with someone, the dynamic between you changes entirely, and so inevitably, it has. I think how that’s going to manifest itself is going to show as the season progresses, and I don’t want to give too much away, just because it will be very interesting to see how audiences react to the next [few] episodes. But certainly, it’s affected their relationship, no doubt. And also his relationship with Aegon and Aemond, because she’s their mother. And so to be having an affair with these kids that you work with, I mean, it’s very House of the Dragon. [Laughs]

Matt, you said in a recent interview that this season, Daemon is, “softer, lazier, fatter and slower.” What has it been like to play this new side of the character after an extremely intense first season?

Matt Smith: You know, I just said those words because it sounded good. Suddenly everyone’s like, “Oh, by the way, you said this.” [Laughs] I think we find him in a place where there’s this sort of dark storm brewing in his belly, and the lightning’s cracking and the thunder rumbles up into his lungs in his chest, and it’s all gonna purge out of his mouth. And he doesn’t know how to [handle it]. That’s just going on inside of him, and it slows him down.

It makes him question himself, it makes him question his life, and his brother, and his wife, and his grief, and that’s what got ahold of him. You could just put that line of words into one word, which is grief. And as it goes on, there’s a mysticism that takes hold in a way.

Both of your characters in different ways are taking on a lot of new responsibilities this season. What do you feel like is weighing on your character’s minds the most, like what questions are really plaguing them this season?

Matt Smith: Quite a lot for Daemon. There’s a lot. Without giving too much away, it’s about his role in this world, in this universe. And I think it all relates back to his brother, really, and his relationship with his wife. I think all of those things just go like [gesturing] this. Because they can’t see what I’m doing when they read this, what I did is I moved my hands in like two walls closing together like Indiana Jones when the spikes are about to hit him, and pushed them together, reader.

Fabien Frankel: Isn’t that professional of him? [Laughs] How has he been compared to me, spoiling all of the show every time you ask a question?

Matt Smith: Yeah, don’t worry, you’re only talking to four prominent journalists. [Laughs] What’s weighing on your character the most this season? The fact you’re about to give the f***ing story away. Criston Cole is in Westeros now going, “Shut the f*** up!”

Fabien Frankel: [Laughs] His armor’s weighing on him. I think he feels very responsible for the death of the baby Jaehaerys, and that I think is sort of the driving force of his anxieties.

Harry Collett Reveals One Scene’s Big Dialogue Change In Season 2

Screen Rant: What are the hardest parts of filming scenes with Vermax?

Harry Collett: For me, it’s been being a man with my area, because the dragon rig is quite wide, so my legs can ache a little bit, I would say. Also, just the fact that you are in constant motion for probably about 45 minutes to an hour, and for me, I felt a bit sick. But apart from that, it’s really really fun. It’s amazing, the wind machine and sky that we have. They put up this sort of LED sky, so you kind of feel like you are flying in the sky, which is really cool. It’s mad that I can say I ride green rigs for a living, but it is what I do.

You mentioned how Jace has a very single-minded revenge sort of mindset going on. Do you feel like it’s not just rooted in anger, but perhaps also almost feeling a form of responsibility after his brother’s passing?

Harry Collett: One hundred percent. He did say, “Send us.” In the first episode, when we have that scene where Jace reacts to Luke’s death, on the actual day, when I went into Emma [Darcy]’s arms, I said, “It’s all my fault.” Obviously from Jace’s point of view. And that didn’t make it to the final cut, but I feel like it was better with just silence. Because it’s just more powerful that way sometimes.

But of course, Jsce is going to feel responsible. And I feel like if he didn’t even say, “Send us,” he’d still feel responsible. He’d be like, “Why didn’t I teach him this? Why didn’t I teach him that?” But the fact that he did say something, and it was his idea, I think makes it 10 times worse.

In terms of Jace’s mindset and what he views his role to be in the family and in society, what would you say are the biggest ways that’s changed?

Harry Collett: I feel like Jace’s determination to do things sometimes can come across quite rational. I feel like because of what’s just happened and his revenge, he’s so emotionally driven that he’s not thinking straight. But it’s finally woken him up that he needs a place in the council. He needs to get the job done, and he’s gonna push for that.

Tom Glynn-Carney’s Aegon Shows Allegiance To Himself First

Screen Rant: It almost seems at times like Aegon may have a more tender heart than his situation allows. How much do you think outside influence is going to affect his ruling this season versus what he wants to do internally?

Tom Glynn-Carney: I think he’s made a name for himself, hasn’t he? He’s got a reputation now, and he’s on the track to try and unpick as much of that as he can. There’s an element of appearances that he wants to put forward. And the problem with Aegon is that he wants to be loved and feared at the same time, and that doesn’t go together. So he’s now trying to work out which side of the fence he wants to be on. That whole stuff with him at the petition, he’s not doing it for the good of them. He’s doing it so they think he’s a good, thoughtful, kind king, like his father was. And he gets it all wrong, doesn’t he?

In season 1, Aemond made it clear that he believes he should be king and not Aegon. Do you think that’s an opinion that weighs on your character and affects how he rules?

Tom Glynn-Carney: Yeah, Aemond has always been chomping at his heels. He’s been right behind him the entire time and waiting for Aegon to slip up, constantly. So he’s aware of it, but he’s also not that threatened by it. He knows he’d never do anything, or so he thinks. He knows he’s got his back, Aemond is fiercely loyal. And he keeps up appearances saying things like, “Oh, my king summoned me,” and all that sort of stuff, it’s like, “Okay, he does. He knows his place.” And I genuinely think Aegon believes he is his own Rottweiler, and he can set him on anyone at will, and he’ll do what he says, because that’s his purpose. He’s a warrior.

Deep down, who do you think your character has the most allegiance or care for in the show?

Tom Glynn-Carney: That’s a good question. Himself. Yeah, sorry, it’s probably himself. He finds an affinity with Larys Strong. They’re both odd, they’re both sort of outsiders in a way, they both think in similar ways. He sees a lot of himself, I think. So maybe Larys, but I think himself.