House Of The Dragon Season 2 Trailer Teases Big Battles And Even Bigger Treachery
All hail the king ... or the queen! Which one has the rightful claim, you ask? Well, that depends on which side you happen to have sworn allegiance to in the great Targaryen schism known as the Dance of the Dragons.
"House of the Dragon" lived up to its billing as an essential "Game of Thrones" prequel, set hundreds of years before Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen ever made their claims on the Iron Throne. The events of the mythic Targaryen civil war always loomed large in the background of the original HBO series, but never before had we seen the fire, blood, and (of course) incest depicted with as much fervor as the 10 episodes that comprised its debut season. With all the major players fully established and the stakes set impossibly high, season 2 now has a full runway to double down on our favorite royal squabble and dive deep into one of the most brutal wars to ever make its way to the shores of Westeros.
Today, HBO released another brand-new trailer to hype up our return to "House of the Dragon" (not to mention adding a little friendly rivalry to Prime Video's "The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power," which just debuted its own trailer earlier). Be warned: There will be dragons. Check out the epic footage at the link above!
War is coming in House of the Dragon season 2
Maybe tearing the Targaryen dynasty apart and plunging the realm into chaos and violence wasn't the best course of action, eh? Season 1 of "House of the Dragon" set up a rather convincing case for the Iron Throne for both sides of the family — or, rather, it laid the groundwork for the slow-motion car crash that was always inevitable as a result of some seriously iffy rules of succession. It's no wonder that this simmering conflict would ultimately come to a head between Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) and the Queen Regent Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), devolving into full-blown war featuring sprawling battles, betrayals and treachery, and absolutely no shortage of dragonfire.
"House of the Dragon" season 2 comes from co-creator/executive producer George R.R. Martin (who is allegedly hard at work writing the perpetually-delayed "The Winds of Winter") and co-creator/showrunner/executive producer Ryan Condal. Based on Martin's "Fire & Blood" novels, the series cast includes returning faces Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D'Arcy, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans. This time around, they'll be joined by new additions Abubakar Salim, Gayle Rankin, Freddie Fox, Simon Russell Beale, Clinton Liberty, Jamie Kenna, Kieran Bew, Tom Bennett, Tom Taylor, and Vincent Regan. You'd better start brushing up on your knowledge of Westeros' Great Houses now, folks.
The season 2 premiere of "House of the Dragon" airs on HBO and streams on Max on Sunday, June 16 at 9:00 p.m. ET.