The debate over whether or not the last season of Game of Thrones ruined everyone’s appetite for the series rages on, but we’ll find out the truth when HBO launches its prequel series House of the Dragon. The prestige network (and streamer) has released the first House of the Dragon images for the series, and it appears there will be a lot of standing around on beaches for the ancestors of Daenerys and, of course, white hair wigs.
The three House of the Dragon images feature the show’s stars Emma D’Arcy, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Rhys Ifans, and Steve Toussaint. D’Arcy and Smith feature in the first image as dragonrider Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her uncle Prince Daemon Targaryen doing their very best not to look at each other pensively. The second image shows Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, aka the Sea Snake, who was referred to in the series and is a famed adventurer of the high seas. Finally, Ifans and Cooke do their level best to avoid eye contact as Hand of the King Otto Hightower and as his daughter, Alicent Hightower.
Obviously, these are production shots meant to show off the actors and give us a tease for the costuming, but it is almost comical how little is going on in the pictures. It is a little disappointing that the outfits look like they’d fit right in on the original Game of Thrones series despite this one taking place 300 years beforehand. The series focuses on the Targaryens and their dragon-filled conquest of Westeros.
With the series based on his book Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin is back in creative control alongside Ryan J. Condal, who wrote the pilot that landed the series an order. Miguel Sapochnik is acting as showrunner. House of the Dragon does not have a premiere date yet, but as the images show, production is underway.