The first full trailer for House of the Dragon, HBO’s prequel series to Game of Thrones, is finally here, and it was worth the wait.
The show is set 200 years before the original series, but will offer similar reasons to tune in, including in-fighting, family drama, and, of course, plenty of dragons. HBO released a short teaser in May, but the nearly three-minute trailer just dropped is the stuff of legends. This is the first, but certainly not the last, spinoff to give details of the original show via a prequel.
“The dream, it was clearer than a memory,” Daemon Targaryen in the trailer. “When I heard the sound of thundering hooves, splintering shields and ringing swords, and I placed my hand upon the iron throne, and all the dragons roared as one.” Later in the trailer, Viserys Targaryen looks stoic talking of the heir to the throne, saying, “I will not be made to choose between my brother and my daughter.” Shivers.
Cut to dragons flying, more dramatic stares, and Rhaenyra Targaryen promising when she’s Queen she’ll create a new order to things, and you’ve got the makings of a classic.
The cast includes Matt Smith as Prince Daemon Targaryen and Emma D’Arcy as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, and the trailer premiered just before some of its cast members appear at San Diego Comic-Con for a House of The Dragon panel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Rounding out the cast, Paddy Considine will play King Viserys Targaryen and Olivia Cooke, Alicent Hightower.
Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin’s novel, “Fire & Blood,” is the source for this spinoff with co-creators Miquel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal leading the charge for production. The goal of the series is to highlight the struggles of House Targaryen amid a civil war as they fight to name an heir to the throne.
“I’m setting out as a fan to make the thing I want to see, and I’m happy with what we’ve achieved,” Condal told The Hollywood Reporter. “The Targaryens are like the Jedi in ‘Star Wars,’ where you heard about this time when they were plentiful and powerful and always wanted to see that. And now you get to.”
“Those of you who like complex, conflicted, grey characters (as I do) will like the series, I think,” Martin wrote of the series. “There will be plenty of dragons and battles, to be sure, but the spine of the story is the human conflicts, the love and the hate, character drama rather than action/adventure.”
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO on Aug. 21, and we for one, cannot wait.