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HBO Reveals First Actor Cast in House of the Dragon


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There might be a different option too: Telling two storylines, the first starting with the death of Aemma, and the other one starting with the death of Rhea Royce, or something like that.

They just can't begin it in later than 105AC. They need to build it up, but I don't know how. And since George has a bigbig part in the series, I expect it to be 100% accurate to the book. But then the children of Alicent wouldn't even be in season 1, maybe Aegon and Helaena, and a pretty young Rhaenyra(around 7-8), and a Daemon around his twenties. I can see skipping 106-111, and 111-115, but not the year 111, and of course 120-128.

The way I imagine it: One or two seasons in 105-106, then another in 111, then three between 115-120, and the remaining (maybe 3 seasons) in 128-130, with a lot of recalling memories of he missing periods.

I want it to be canon, or at least semi-canon, bc GOT was only a weird fanfic comparig to the books.

But the things I need to see: Viserys and Daemon recalling memories of Balerion, Jaehaerys, Alysanne and Baelon.

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On 10/8/2020 at 1:31 AM, The Dragon Demands said:

@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.  

Oh, Viserys' motivation is reasonably clear. He liked his family and forgave them pretty much everything. What we don't have is a clear concept of the Viserys-Daemon relationship, especially in their youth and childhood. The dynamics there are pretty unique, with Viserys being four years older than Daemon, meaning we have almost an Aenys-Maegor age gap there. This kind of thing firmly establishes who's in charge since one brother is definitely much older (unlike, say, with Aemon and Baelon who were much closer in age).

But we don't know what they did in their childhood and youth together to be pretty close, nor do we know what fueled Daemon's ambition in his early adulthood or his weird stunts later in life.

This show has to make them come alive as characters, and make us understand Daemon's relationship with his brother, Rhaenyra, Otto, Alicent, his stepsons and, especially, Mysaria and eventually Nettles.

As for the heir thing - before 105 AC Daemon actually was Viserys I's presumptive heir. He did not make him Heir Apparent or Prince of Dragonstone because he still believed he would have a son one day, but Rhaenyra wasn't the heir until the ceremony. After Daemon's 'heir for a day' remark the king had had enough of Daemon seeing himself as his heir and decided to put him into his place by making his daughter the Heir Apparent.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some bits of information about the costumes and creation of House of the Dragon by Ryan Condal

Personally  I think he seems like a nice guy- a fan of Tolkien and Martin. Though as we see with Viserys I "good guys don't necessarily make great kings" it remains to be seen how it would develop the show.

Miguel Sapochnik seems to be involved  and they seemingly stick to proverb : "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" - relating to the costumes who will have slight adjustment compared to GOT, mostly in fashion of earlier time period.

Timestamps:

House of the Dragon Production Design & Costumes - 10:26

Making House of the Dragon, Getting Hired - 38:06

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  • 1 month later...
15 hours ago, The Dragon Demands said:

What's all this, then?

Unsubstantiated rumors that Matt Smith is in talks to play Daemon Targaryen:

Game of Thrones House Of The Dragon: HBO Eyeing Matt Smith for Targaryen Prince Role: Exclusive - The Illuminerdi

The Illuminerdi has proved...to have some interesting info before.

Ugh I already hate him because Lily James, playing Daemon would be icing on the cake, though I must confess he was good in the Crown.

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Smith is an excellent actor, although Daemon to me was always very Rome-era James Purefoy, to the point it's hard to think of another actor in the role (Purefoy's only seven years older than Daemon was when he died, so I do wonder if they could make it work by just casting him).

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This same website said that Emily Blunt was on the short list to play Alicent Hightower.

BUT we have to face the possibility that they're playing YOUNG versions of these actors in Season 1, much as like what Matt Smith's The Crown show did.  The fact that Viserys I Targaryen is appearing as a full character in Season 1 means they're starting with the Rogue Prince era.....meaning we'll have time skips of 30 years, from the beginning to end of his reign (they mention the Great Council of Harrenhal by name in his casting announcement).  

Even the Game of Thrones TV series had a "young" Ned Stark in some later flashbacks.

This is one of the top questions I'd ask the writers if they ever (gasp) did open Q&A:  "How will you handle time skips in Rogue Prince?  Will there be younger actors in Season 1?"

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Matt Smith isn't exactly the first person I think of when I picture a swaggering, hot-headed Targaryen, to be honest. 

I'm surprised they aren't looking at more Scandinavian/Icelandic actors for this show, since that's more of the Targaryen "look." There are certainly a lot of very talented British actors out there, but I feel like there's this mentality where in order for a fantasy drama to be legitimate, everyone needs to be British. 

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7 minutes ago, The Dragon Demands said:

This same website said that Emily Blunt was on the short list to play Alicent Hightower.

BUT we have to face the possibility that they're playing YOUNG versions of these actors in Season 1, much as like what Matt Smith's The Crown show did.  The fact that Viserys I Targaryen is appearing as a full character in Season 1 means they're starting with the Rogue Prince era.....meaning we'll have time skips of 30 years, from the beginning to end of his reign (they mention the Great Council of Harrenhal by name in his casting announcement).  

Even the Game of Thrones TV series had a "young" Ned Stark in some later flashbacks.

This is one of the top questions I'd ask the writers if they ever (gasp) did open Q&A:  "How will you handle time skips in Rogue Prince?  Will there be younger actors in Season 1?"

Emily Blunt's a very talented actress, plus she has a lot of name recognition thanks to Mary Poppins/being married to John Krasinski. 

Personally, I think that someone like Nina Dobrev would be really good as a younger Alicent, but I doubt she has enough "serious" credentials for this show. She hasn't done much the past few years. 

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Well watching some Crown scenes on youtube I could definitely see that Matt Smith would be capable in capturing essence of character though not his physicality, it is mantra they went with in doing Crown which turned out quite well.

I posted it on reddit and could see Daemon/Rhaenyra having similar type of conversation or emotion he shows at childbirth or menace in the photo scene:

 

So sorry Travis Fimmel fans  ( hate Vikings and Warcraft both in latter he still had accent issues, hope he is better in Raised by Wolves) or those who wanted Jason Isaacs ( who has gravitas and looks great in a blonde wig) yet he often gets to cartoony evil in his roles- maybe due writing or his eagerness to take controversial roles, but is unfortunately too old.  

Anyway if they are making ensemble cast, they should see if they fit  together and existence of chemistry between some of the characters.

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On 12/3/2020 at 5:20 PM, The Bard of Banefort said:

I'm surprised they aren't looking at more Scandinavian/Icelandic actors for this show, since that's more of the Targaryen "look." There are certainly a lot of very talented British actors out there, but I feel like there's this mentality where in order for a fantasy drama to be legitimate, everyone needs to be British. 

Like GoT the show is being shot in Britain, but even moreso: the studios are just outside London, so the cast will overwhelmingly be British.

Also, the Targaryens we've seen so far on the mothership show have all been British, so I'm not sure why that would be the Targaryen "look".

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On 12/3/2020 at 6:14 PM, The Dragon Demands said:

This same website said that Emily Blunt was on the short list to play Alicent Hightower.

BUT we have to face the possibility that they're playing YOUNG versions of these actors in Season 1, much as like what Matt Smith's The Crown show did.  The fact that Viserys I Targaryen is appearing as a full character in Season 1 means they're starting with the Rogue Prince era.....meaning we'll have time skips of 30 years, from the beginning to end of his reign (they mention the Great Council of Harrenhal by name in his casting announcement).  

Even the Game of Thrones TV series had a "young" Ned Stark in some later flashbacks.

This is one of the top questions I'd ask the writers if they ever (gasp) did open Q&A:  "How will you handle time skips in Rogue Prince?  Will there be younger actors in Season 1?"

Matt Smith is 38. It would make no sense to cast a 38 year old actor as a "young" version of the character and a, I don't know, 50 year old actor as an "old" version of the same character.

Unless they are to feature a teenage or barely-out-of-teens Daemon, there's no point of casting a younger actor - and that younger actor would have at most be in his 20s. 

And if they were casting those younger versions, they would probably not have enough screentime to cast well known actors like Smith.

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13 minutes ago, Werthead said:

Like GoT the show is being shot in Britain, but even moreso: the studios are just outside London, so the cast will overwhelmingly be British.

Also, the Targaryens we've seen so far on the mothership show have all been British, so I'm not sure why that would be the Targaryen "look".

So what if the actors have been British? They have also cast a Danish actor and an American actor as Lannisters.

What's a bit of a mystery is why they don't cast some blonder people who would look more convincing as silver-haired people instead of constantly putting bad wigs on brunettes whose eyebrows clash with the wig color.

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2 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

So what if the actors have been British? They have also cast a Danish actor and an American actor as Lannisters.

What's a bit of a mystery is why they don't cast some blonder people who would look more convincing as silver-haired people instead of constantly putting bad wigs on brunettes whose eyebrows clash with the wig color.

My guess is that it is easier to sell looks to wide audience, something that studios and some showrunners cater to. 

Kenneth Branagh agreed with Chris Hemsworth about depicting his character in Thor for him to dye his eyebrows blonde - maybe trying to be authentic. Something that was frowned upon by studio execs and changed in later movies.

From Marilyn Monroe to many copies of look, we see bleached blonde look is popular to the masses. In  the homeland how many of Showbiz people are  "tastefully" bleached : Karleusa, Bekvalac, Kovacevic, not counting idj spawn?

 

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6 hours ago, Annara Snow said:

So what if the actors have been British? They have also cast a Danish actor and an American actor as Lannisters.

What's a bit of a mystery is why they don't cast some blonder people who would look more convincing as silver-haired people instead of constantly putting bad wigs on brunettes whose eyebrows clash with the wig color.

That's what I meant about casting Scandinavian actors, since many of them do have white-blonde hair. As beautiful as Emilia is, those eyebrows grew increasingly more distracting with each season.

Now that I think about it, Alexander Skarsgard would make a pretty good Targaryen, wouldn't he? Plus the execs at HBO clearly love him. (I saw some fancasts of him for the Red Kraken, but that's probably because he played a Viking on True Blood).

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