Jump to content

HBO Reveals First Actor Cast in House of the Dragon


Westeros

Recommended Posts

From EW’s James Hibberd (whose Fire Cannot Kill a Dragon [paid link] is now out), HBO has revealed the first actor cast in next year’s House of the Dragon: Englsh actor Paddy Considine, known for a variety of roles including Edgar Wright comedies and, most recently, HBO’s The Outsider. According to the report, he has been cast to play King Viserys I Targaryen.



Click for full-sized image

read on >>>

View the full article

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

A character description has been provided for Viserys as well:

“King Viserys Targaryen is chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. A warm, kind, and decent man, Viserys only wishes to carry forward his grandfather’s legacy. But good men do not necessarily make for great kings.”

Thats a bummer. If they're going to get to king Viserys in season one means there's only material for like three season all in all.

This gives me a creepy suspicion we will end up getting a painted pig rehash of the GoT lore-webbisodes...

:crying:

 

edit: nothing against the actor though, my misgivings is about his character showing up waaaaaay too early in the series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Sigella said:

Thats a bummer. If they're going to get to king Viserys in season one means there's only material for like three season all in all.

This gives me a creepy suspicion we will end up getting a painted pig rehash of the GoT lore-webbisodes...

:crying:

edit: nothing against the actor though, my misgivings is about his character showing up waaaaaay too early in the series.

The series is about the Dance of Dragons, so if anything it's surprising that King Viserys is going to be around for long enough to be called the lead of the show, which suggests that his demise will come late in the day and Season 1 will be about the buildup (maybe focusing more on the Rogue Prince narrative), then the war itself will be covered in several seasons (two to three would be my guess).

Certainly it's not enough for seven or ten seasons by itself. But there's nothing stopping them doing a Fargo and in Season 5 fast-forwarding to Aegon IV and the build-up to the Blackfyre Rebellion, or rewinding to Aegon's Conquest. The show's title indicates it will be about the Targaryens, and that's a pretty broad base to cover.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

—Queen Alicent Hightower: Viserys' ambitious second wife and Rhaenyra's stepmother, who had three children of her own with the king.

People noticed that they mention Alicent having three children when Aegon II, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron exist, is it error or they are removing/merging characters.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Unless it is an error I believe of the four Daeron is the most likely to be omitted. Would also reduce the CGI with one less dragon. IMO there are just too many characters who are in the book for all of them to be included without the show getting bogged down in too may storylines (many tv watchers might get confused with too many characters-it was hard enough to do this even when I was reading the book). Just my opinion. But I suspect many faithful book readers would not be happy with this.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

28 minutes ago, Werthead said:

The series is about the Dance of Dragons, so if anything it's surprising that King Viserys is going to be around for long enough to be called the lead of the show, which suggests that his demise will come late in the day and Season 1 will be about the buildup (maybe focusing more on the Rogue Prince narrative), then the war itself will be covered in several seasons (two to three would be my guess).

Certainly it's not enough for seven or ten seasons by itself. But there's nothing stopping them doing a Fargo and in Season 5 fast-forwarding to Aegon IV and the build-up to the Blackfyre Rebellion, or rewinding to Aegon's Conquest. The show's title indicates it will be about the Targaryens, and that's a pretty broad base to cover.

The casting information we got on both Viserys I and Daemon suggests we are going to get some kind of brother drama here, first, before turning to the second generation. We hear about Daemon craving the love of his older brother the king, and Viserys I is sort of described more as a King Aenys type guy than the party king George invented.

The point where George really dropped the ball in his Dance story is the actual relationship of Daemon and Viserys. Why did Viserys love his brother to the degree he did? In turn, what drove Daemon to want to be the king's heir when a younger brother rarely, if at all, lives to succeed his brother? Complexity and subtlety on that front could mean that Daemon doesn't feel that his brother loves him to the degree he wants, so he tries to get attention with his scheming and warring and whatnot.

It seems they are planning to elaborate on that relationship of two crucial characters which George at best hinted at. This has to be a story that makes sense, after all.

Could be the buildup for the Dance could be just one season, but it would not surprise me if it took longer. They seem to be starting at the outset of the reign of Viserys I now, and there are ways to deal with the ages of the characters simply by making Rhaenyra ten years older or so. Then she would be a young woman when her father marries Alicent and from there we could continue. It is quite interesting to note that we don't have any description for Alicent's or Rhaenyra's children, meaning they might not feature (prominently) in the first season.

If they are smart they might start with the Great Council because that would provide a great stage to introduce many secondary and tertiary characters (or their parents) which are going to become important in the later war.

One should not forget that narrative-wise the FaB chapter 'Heirs of the Dragon - A Question of Succession' is effectively a prologue to the Dance. The first seeds for this war are brought out in 92 and 101 AC, with later events only setting the stage for the minutiae of the actual succession war (which could have been completely different if things had gone down differently as indicated by the wounded pride of the Velaryons, Daemon's early ambitions, the schemes of the Strongs, etc.). Thus it makes sense that an adaptation of this actually catches the plot there, making this a conflict with a long buildup not something that's based children's quarrels.

And to be very clear - this whole thing would be an empty, vapid story if we didn't get the roots of Viserys-Alicent, Alicent-Rhaenyra, Daemon-Otto, Rhaenyra-Criston, etc. We want to know why close family end up killing each other. This is not something that can be just told. It has to be shown.

Not everything has to happen in real time ... they could also later work with flashbacks to contrast certain Dance scenes with scenes from the reign of Viserys I.

48 minutes ago, Eltharion21 said:

People noticed that they mention Alicent having three children when Aegon II, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron exist, is it error or they are removing/merging characters.

Oh, they might very well cut Helaena or Daeron. Or perhaps play up the children's quarrel so that Rhaenyra's sons actually cause the death of one of Alicent's children.

3 minutes ago, DisneyDoc2425 said:

Unless it is an error I believe of the four Daeron the Daring is the most likely to be omitted. Would also reduce the CGI with one less dragon. IMO there are just too many characters who are in the book for all of them to be included without the show getting bogged down in too may storylines (many tv watchers might get confused with too many characters-it was hard enough to do this even when I was reading the book). Just my opinion. But I suspect many faithful book readers would not be happy with this.

Truth be told, there are not many characters in this story, nor are there many factions. I don't see a good reason to omit core characters. And Alicent's children are all pretty important, even Daeron the Daring.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Werthead said:

The series is about the Dance of Dragons, so if anything it's surprising that King Viserys is going to be around for long enough to be called the lead of the show, which suggests that his demise will come late in the day and Season 1 will be about the buildup (maybe focusing more on the Rogue Prince narrative), then the war itself will be covered in several seasons (two to three would be my guess).

Certainly it's not enough for seven or ten seasons by itself. But there's nothing stopping them doing a Fargo and in Season 5 fast-forwarding to Aegon IV and the build-up to the Blackfyre Rebellion, or rewinding to Aegon's Conquest. The show's title indicates it will be about the Targaryens, and that's a pretty broad base to cover.

And here I was thinking it was to be FaB, including the conquest and the Conciliator?

Wishful thinking on my part.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 minutes ago, The Grey Wolf said:

If one of Alicent's children had to be cut I'd go with Helaena. Her role as Aegon II's wife could easily be filled by any other lady.

Would still be a character taking (marginal) space. If they want to cut people, then they also want to cut/combine plotlines, meaning that if Aegon II's wife were to go her reason for being (i.e. children) would likely also go. I don't see that happening because I don't see them cutting Blood and Cheese.

They might feel that three sons are too much there ... or this might be nonsense.

But then - could be that the first season doesn't even include the birth of Daeron the Daring.

If they started with the Great Council and thus with the beginning of the reign of the Young King, and they were to take their time with Daemon-Viserys, Otto, the death of Aemma, Rhaenyra's installation as heir, the second royal wedding, Criston Cole and Rhaenyra, and Daemon's wars abroad, then the first season might only stretch as far as Rhaenyra's wedding and the falling-out of Criston and Rhaenyra.

And that would mean no Daeron the Daring yet, no Velaryon boys, and no twins for Daemon in season 1.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

 

And here I was thinking it was to be FaB, including the conquest and the Conciliator?

Wishful thinking on my part.

 

No, it's been about the Dance since the original pitch by Bryan Cogman years ago.

There is scope for it to expand to other eras later on, though.

11 hours ago, Bael's Bastard said:

Some site is spreading a rumor about Travis Fimmel for Daemon. Would be amazing, but isn't he already on a show?

He's on Raised by Wolves. It depends on the filming dates. Given that RBW is also a HBO show (albeit HBO Max) they can probably work out the timing to suit both projects (like how Netflix and HBO worked out a deal to allow Jessica Henwick to do GoT and Iron Fist at the same time, although that was a much smaller role on GoT).

Quote

The most important news for me is they are casting Aegon II NOW

They're announcing them now, they've probably already made the decisions weeks or months ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

23 hours ago, Eltharion21 said:

People noticed that they mention Alicent having three children when Aegon II, Helaena, Aemond and Daeron exist, is it error or they are removing/merging characters.

Yes I noticed that too.

  • Option 1 - It's an error by EW's writeup, which isn't part of the actual HBO press release
  • Option 2 - They cut out Daeron the Daring
  • Option 3 - Given that they're starting with Rogue Prince, mentioning the Great Council at Harrenhal and Jaehaerys I...and the leaked casting sheets for Daemon and Rhaenyra are for actors 5-10 years younger than when Viserys dies.....it's possible that they're simply starting before Daeron is born.

i lean towards option 3 given that the same EW article called Daemon the uncle of Rhaenyra but not her husband.  They seem to be based around the year 111 AC.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

If they cast Aegon II and company for the first season, there is still a chance that we sort of get some later scenes with the younger generation, say, things leading up the Viserys' death.

Or they just reworked the timeline to make more sense and reduce the children. Viserys I could already be married to Alicent when he takes the throne, Rhaenyra could be older and Aegon and some of the other children could already be around. Daeron could turn out to be a son of Aegon II rather than his brother in such a scenario.

Overall, it is good that they seem to be taking their time in establishing the conflict. Because again - if that's not done right then the entire premise of the show won't work. People won't care about a show where people kill each other for no good reason. People have to care about the characters and their agendas and their personal motivation.

And the way to go there is to make it unclear for as long as possible who is going to fight who further down the road. Which is the entire point of HotD in the beginning when both the Velaryons and Daemon are first build up as villains who might rock the boat when Viserys I dies or is incapacitated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Lord Varys

Why did Viserys tolerate Daemon's antics for as long as he did?  

1 - He still was his brother

2 - Viserys wasn't a complete idiot: like Robert to Stannis, as it were, he could always threaten to name his younger brother as heir.  Now I say "threaten" because it would have been really difficult to actually do it, but the THREAT of it was far more valuable; he wasn't a complete idiot, he wasn't blind to the ambitions of the Hightowers.  He may have seen Daemon as a counter-balance of sorts.  Indeed, the SPECIFIC reason he managed to get even the Hightowers to support public declarations that Rhaenyra was his lawful heir, was the threat that if she was not, for a time that meant Daemon would be his heir (whom they hated).  I like to think the Viserys was trying to make the best of a bad situation, with limited options.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22 hours ago, Bael's Bastard said:

Some site is spreading a rumor about Travis Fimmel for Daemon. Would be amazing, but isn't he already on a show?

I believe that's a rumor started with WiC fan cast in Feb. https://winteriscoming.net/2020/02/02/lets-dreamcast-the-game-of-thrones-prequel-house-of-the-dragon/5/

No one mentioned it till Sep. 27, when a tweet user with few alive followers @7MOVN posted as truth, and then deleted it.

A Portuguese entertainment website reported it in Sep 27, citing @7MOVN https://www.torredevigilancia.com/travis-fimmel-de-vikings-esta-em-negociacoes-para-unir-se-ao-elenco-de-house-of-dragon-como-daemon-targaryen/

Then everyone started talking about it, citing either the Portuguese site or @7MOVN.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

Yes I noticed that too.

  • Option 1 - It's an error by EW's writeup, which isn't part of the actual HBO press release
  • Option 2 - They cut out Daeron the Daring
  • Option 3 - Given that they're starting with Rogue Prince, mentioning the Great Council at Harrenhal and Jaehaerys I...and the leaked casting sheets for Daemon and Rhaenyra are for actors 5-10 years younger than when Viserys dies.....it's possible that they're simply starting before Daeron is born.

i lean towards option 3 given that the same EW article called Daemon the uncle of Rhaenyra but not her husband.  They seem to be based around the year 111 AC.

Hopefully it is 3, I would love to see Blue Queen , I got at home miniature of  d&d Gargantuan Blue Dragon which reminds me in a way.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

THE PLOT THICKENS!

Entertainment Weekly's article has been UPDATED since its original posting...specifically rewording the part about Alicent Hightower's children. I think enough people asked the article author about it on Twitter that, without publicly reacting, he went back and changed it - but to reflect what?

The original version, posted Wednesday, which I had already screenshotted the day it was posted to remind myself about the clue it seemed to be giving, said:

"Viserys' ambitious second wife and Rhaenyra's stepmother, who had three children of her own with the king"

But logging in just now, late Friday night, this line has been revised so it now reads:

"Viserys' ambitious second wife and Rhaenyra's stepmother, who had children of her own with the king."

...he took the "three" out.  

This gets us nowhere, though.  As I said, three options, and they're still in play here:  Option 1 - it was just a typo, but rather than draw attention to it, Hibberd just deleted it...but then...why not just fix it to say "four" children?  Option 2 is that they're cutting Daeron the Daring and Hibberd accidentally let it slip.  

Option 3, which I still hope for, is that Hibberd let slip a relatively minor point...that Daeron simply hasn't been born yet at the start of Season 1, but he will be later.  

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...