Original: House of the Dragon, Streaming This Weekend
The long-awaited (and one of several that didn’t make it into post-production) prequel to the sprawling Game of Thrones series, comes with creator George R.R. Martin’s approval and a fresh cast of complex characters. Less fresh: the usual Martinian themes of Shakespearean ambition expressed through operatic violence and slightly po-faced myth making. In respect of the on-screen sexuality that’s red in tooth and claw: that’s refreshingly absent from trailers: it’s unclear if the frequent erotic (incestuous, transactional, or non-consensual, often distracting) interludes of the original series will continue here.
New blood in House of the Dragon
There’s newer blood in House of the Dragon’s show runners: it’s confirmed D.B. Weiss and David Benioff won’t return in any capacity, ceding control to Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal. Sapochnik, a noted fan of the books, an experienced director and screenwriter publicly named by Martin as ‘heir to the throne, in a way’.
House of the Dragon opens 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and tells the story of House Targaryen, from which Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys, the Mother of Dragons herself, is descended.
The series’ central conflict finds Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (a striking, queenly Emma D’Arcy) locked in competition for the throne with her younger brother heir apparent Prince Daemon Targaryen (Ex Doctor Matt Smith). Traditionalists object, as ever, to a woman on the Iron Throne, but Rhaenyra sets out to build ‘a new order’ from the back of her dragon. Meanwhile, members of Houses Stark, Velaryon, Lannister, and Baratheon plot to undermine the House Targryen.
The largely British ensemble cast features actors of calibre and intensity in leading and supporting roles: Paddy Considine as King Viserys Targaryen, Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower and Eve Best (Nurse Jackie) as Rhaenys Targaryen. In perhaps a sop to criticisms of Thrones and fantasy TV in general for their lack of diversity, this iteration of Martin’s original work also features actors of colour in prominent roles: Sonoya Mizuno (Ex-Machina) as Mysaria and Steve Toussaint (Fortitude, Doctor Who) as Lord Corlys Velaryon.
Said dragons feature briefly in trailers, the focus instead firmly on more wars of succession for King’s Landing and the Iron Throne, this time between silver-haired schemers with fantastic bone structure, in murky rooms, with murky motives. House of the Dragon also contains the obligatory and admittedly exhilarating snippets of battle scenes here, as well as the equally obligatory (and less exhilarating) portentousness.
The 10-episode run debuts on August 21st (HBO Max), with clear potential to springboard another long-running series, with high hopes from its creators for another cultural juggernaut, whose pilot launched a thousand wintry memes.
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