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Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy Cast in House of the Dragon


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1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

In that sense, my take on things would be that, originally, Otto and Alicent target Daemon, and after that fails and Queen Aemma dies, the king falls into their lap, basically. But they only realize this after Otto has already helped Viserys I to install Rhaenyra as Heir Apparent.

This is pretty genius. I hope the writers are reading this, or come up with the same thing. 

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4 hours ago, Sotan said:

This is pretty genius. I hope the writers are reading this, or come up with the same thing. 

I'm pretty sure they will come up with something like that ... because as I say, the only thing this setting is going to make sense is if they are twists and turns. If everybody hates each other from the start, if there are clear factions from the start that never change besides the fact that resentment deepens and deepens ... then this is going to be a very boring story.

Then they could just jump right into the Dance and not bother with buildup - but that's what they are doing.

And if we are honest, then we have to admit that the interesting personal stuff basically pretty much stops when the war begins. Then the lines are drawn, the board is set, and everybody kills each other. The core characters don't really change much then, nor does anybody make an unexpected or surprising move aside from Daemon (when he throws away his life for no reason) and, perhaps, Addam Velaryon, when he proves his loyalty.

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1 hour ago, Lord Varys said:

I'm pretty sure they will come up with something like that ... because as I say, the only thing this setting is going to make sense is if they are twists and turns. If everybody hates each other from the start, if there are clear factions from the start that never change besides the fact that resentment deepens and deepens ... then this is going to be a very boring story.

Then they could just jump right into the Dance and not bother with buildup - but that's what they are doing.

And if we are honest, then we have to admit that the interesting personal stuff basically pretty much stops when the war begins. Then the lines are drawn, the board is set, and everybody kills each other. The core characters don't really change much then, nor does anybody make an unexpected or surprising move aside from Daemon (when he throws away his life for no reason) and, perhaps, Addam Velaryon, when he proves his loyalty.

I agree. The set-up really is the heart of the story and The Dance is the release. We have to care about these people and their relationships for us to feel anything when they start dividing and killing each other. 

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Since it seems season 1 is likely a set up for the Dance, I wonder if we'll be hearing about Laena and Laenor's casting as well as Rhaenyra's eldest sons. 

 

Also I somehow activated this spoiler window and I can't get rid of it. 

Spoiler

 

 

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It took me a while to put this together, but I've been working on "actor showreels" for each of the new castings. To get some sense of their prior performances, to see similar roles to the characters they're playing, or just the wide range they can play.

In Matt Smith's case, he's a well-known actor that people stereotype as just "Doctor Who", but he's played roles as diverse as Charles Manson and Patrick Bateman.

In the case of Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke, not a lot of people were familiar with them, so I found clips of other projects they've worked on. Emma in particular was difficult; mostly a theater actor, few TV appearances. That was one of THE biggest questions in the weeks after this casting: No one knew who Emma D'Arcy was (Emma even made a self-deprecating post on Instagram when the casting was announced: "Emma D'Arcy, who the eff is that?" -- and also with Olivia Cooke....a lot of people recognize her from "Ready Player One" but that's simply the most famous role she's been in, she's actually done a lot of indie projects and Sundance Film Fest movies which were quite impressive.

So I put together these actor showreels...in the spirit of how back when they were making Game of Thrones Season 1, we'd hunt around for clips of the less well known younger actors - I remember hunting for clips of the handful of TV appearances Emilia Clarke had done before she was cast.

I try to keep each clip montage to about 15 minutes long.  Emma D'Arcy ran a little short at 13 minutes (due to lack of material), and Olivia Cooke ran a little long at 17 minutes (she's actually been in a lot of movies, just not well known ones).  

This isn't just a playlist:  the way Fair Use works on YouTube you can post stuff if it's in a montage for purposes of "review", but you have to "dispute" the copyright block by Netflix, etc. So it took me days to go through the Fair Use certification process for these clips. The videos are demonitized for me as a result (that is, the ad monetization goes straight to Netflix not me).

Thus you physically won't be able to find clips of Emma D'Arcy like this anywhere else, in one neat montage, without sitting down to watch Emma's prior projects like I did.

Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen)

Emma D'Arcy (Rhaenyra Targaryen)

Olivia Cooke (Alicent Hightower)


I'm still working on actor showreels for the other 5 core cast members who were subsequently announced.

@Ran @Linda  Please watch these yourselves, and if you think they have merit, please consider running as a news post. This is THE big question everyone is always asking, "Rhaenyra's the main character but I haven't seen anything Emma D'Arcy's been in so I can't get a sense of the casting".

I also added all the actor showreels into a single easy to link playlist: 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxojMpX5XGoU1QPsjLDxCEG38SDKfxGNb

 

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Worth noting that Sound of Metal, in which Olivia Cooke is almost completely unrecognisable from everything else she's been in, hit Amazon Prime this week, so can be seen if you have a video sub.

I'm wondering when they're going to start shooting. I think there was a thing about the studio being booked from April, so it could be any time.

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45 minutes ago, The Dragon Demands said:

....My theory was that they would start filming this week. Maybe all this 10th anniversary "MaraThrone" stuff will culminate in them having a "Day 1 on the spinoff" set video by this Sunday or something.

That would be neat. And if its not happening, HBO marketing people please pay attention! 

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