Westeros

We’re off traveling to neighboring Norway for the next couple of days, but thought that this would make a good opportunity to set the record straight on a couple of claims about the Dance of the Dragons as originally envisioned by GRRM, as there’s a lot of rumors and half-understood details going around in a big internet game of telephone. We’ve done two so far, and there may be others, but you can see the first one—concerning the age difference and precise relationship between Rhaenyra and Aegon II—below!

Another exciting episode of House of the Dragon has come and gone, and Linda and I have recorded a video running through the episode, discussing changes from Fire and Blood, and some bits of background and dragon discussion. You can see the video below:

For those who’ve missed it, here is our discussion of changes, background details, and this and that concerning House of the Dragon‘s second episode, “Rhaenyra the Cruel”:

See below for some extra videos from HBO, including the teaser for next week’s episode, the Inside the Episode, and a segment from The House the Dragon Built

Earlier this week, Linda and I had the pleasure to once again interview House of the Dragon co-creator and show runner Ryan Condal. As we were able to do it after the airing of the first episode (you’ll find our video discussing the episode here), the fact that a lot of fans asked us to ask about the changes to Blood and Cheese when adapting Fire and Blood to the screen is a major topic. We also discuss new props, books he has read for research purposes, the new opening, the possibility of a new opening theme from Ramin Djawadi, unsung heroes of the production, and more!

This last month has been one of the busiest I can remember, with road trips to neighboring Norway and Denmark and all sorts of other things, so we’ve been a bit behind in getting the initial content out for episode one, “A Son for a Son”. We’re now trying to rectify that by catching up with a report on our attending a special screening of the premiere episode of House of the Dragon in Stockholm, including some thoughts in sparked in response to a critic’s commentary on the cinematography of the new season.

But first, one part of being so busy is that while we pushed out our commentary video soon after the first episode aired, we thought we’d make a post about it sometime during what turned out to be a very long evening post-screening. So, for those who’ve missed it, here’s our video:

And now to discussing the screening, and whether the show’s cinematography has gotten worse since Miguel Sapochnik left.

Linda and Elio at the post-screening afterparty.

Via HBO, we’ve received our very first look at Peter Claffey as Dunk in Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, as they announce the beginning of production. Not only that, but the press release reveals some of the actors cast in leading roles in the production. See below!

Ser Duncan the Tall at Ashford.

It’s not usual for HBO to do this even before the premiere, but it seemed a foregone conclusion to everyone (including GRRM and Ryan Condal, based on remarks they have made) that House of the Dragon would see at least one more season. But now the word is official, via a press release from HBO:

Short and sweet, as they say.

The good folks at the WB Shop have sent the ravens out to inform the realm that “All Must Choose”... among the many new branded House of the Dragon items, from apparel to games, books to sunglasses, and much much more! Below you’ll find images of just a sampling of items, and further details with some links for some particularly choice items!

Over at Not a Blog, George R.R. Martin has extended his congratulations to playwright Eboni Booth for her recent Pulitzer Prize for her dramatic play, “Primary Trust”.

This may seem rather random, except GRRM goes on to reveal that she is the latest screenwriter to try and develop the story of Nymeria and the Ten Thousand Ships into a pilot for HBO:

Princess Nymeria as depicted by J.K. Drummond for The World of Ice and Fire

Over at Not A Blog, George R.R. Martin provided an update on the casting of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is currently in production in Northern Ireland. We’ve previously

shared the casting of the two leads, but GRRM reveals that a number of other key roles have been cast. . . but it looks like HBO isn’t quite ready to reveal who they are, so they will remain nameless:

As we don’t know who most of the roles are (except for Egg, played by young actor Dexter Sol Ansell, whose video of getting his head shaved is featured in George’s post) we’ll present a gallery below of art by Roman Papsuev (remembered by fans from the early days as Amok or Amoka), commissioned by the Dabel Brothers and based, I believe, on Mike S. Miller’s designs for The Hedge Knight comic book.

Egg, by Roman Papsuev

In the course of promoting his upcoming Netflix original anime, Terminator: Zero, writer Mattson Tomlin did answer some questions from EW about progress on the Aegon the Conqueror series he’s developing for HBO.

Revealed back in February, Tomlin says it’s still very early on the script, but he’s been having a deal of back and forth discussion with George R.R. Martin about it.

Aegon the Conqueror on Balerion, the Black Dread.

We thought that given the very successful launch of the final trailer for the second season of HBO’s House of the Dragon, some of the scenes and images we see sparked some curiosity and thinking from us as we tried to identify various details. Follow us below as we go over 30-odd screenshots from the trailer!

The final trailer for season 2 of House of the Dragon (HBO/Max, June 16th) is now online, and it’s quite the spectacle as we see battles, dragons, skullduggery, and more as the conflict between the siblings King Aegon II and Queen Rhaenyra breaks out into full-blown war. 

More details from HBO below!

Straight from Max’s press desk is the announcement of a unique contest for musical artists in the US (and D.C.), challenging them to create remixes of the House of the Dragon theme using stems available at Beatport’s Loopcloud platform. Judges for the contest will include Beatport, Ed Banger Records, and “select cast members from HBO’s House of the Dragon”.

And the prize? Per the announcement:

HBO has released a two minute behind the scenes video featuring comments from showrunner Ryan Condal and an array of the show’s leading actors, including Matt Smith, Emma d’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Olivia Cooke, and more. Lots of glimpses of heraldry, which we always love to see… but yet again we seem to be getting some confusion between who’s using the two-legged dragon and who is using the four-legged dragon. At this stage, I suspect they’ll never really hammer out the details on that one!

In other news from the world of HBO’s expanion of the Game of Thrones universe, Redanian Intelligence has reported, and which has since been verified and expanded on by The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd, that director Owen Harris was on board to direct episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Per Hibberd, Harris is directing three of the six episodes, which makes us wonder if Harry Bradbeer (also revealed by Redanian Intelligence) is directing the other three. For those who don’t know Harris’s name, he’s directed our favorite episode of Black Mirror, the widely-acclaimed (including winning a Hugo Award!) “San Junipero”.

Also, an interesting note from Hibberd that the show has lost its subtitle of “The Hedge Knight”. This could be a promising sign, in a way, since it could be taken to mean that HBO may be inclined to see this as a continuing series rather than a one-off limited series. We wouldn’t be surprised if at least one of the episodes gets titled “The Hedge Knight”.

Production on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set to begin next month. House of the Dragon returns to screens on June 16th.