Overview
Like show, like trailers: that's the approach that HBO is taking with getting everyone excited about House of the Dragon's return for season two. Fiery feuds are this show's baseline — this franchise's as well, since Game of Thrones was also full of them — so the Targaryen-focused series has scored not one but two new sneak peeks at what's to come. HBO is calling them "duelling trailers", in fact, in a first for the US network.
There's also a trailer for the duelling trailers — because this pair of promos is all about getting audiences to choose a side. Given that the green and black councils are doing battle, one for King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney, Rogue Heroes) and the other for Queen Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy, Mothering Sunday), the pair of House of the Dragon trailers also split their allegiances. Accordingly, viewers get a glimpse of the tale that's set to unravel from each camp's perspective.
Just like winter, which is when House of the Dragon season two will hit Down Under — HBO also announced a Monday, June 17, 2024 premiere date with its new sneak peeks — the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons is coming, then. In the initial teaser for this season, Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie) told her niece Rhaenyra that "there is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin — and no war so bloody as a war between dragons". Because this is the Game of Thrones realm, expect the events that unfurl in House of the Dragon to make good on that observation.
Also returning in season two as the fight for the Iron Throne continues: Olivia Cooke (Slow Horses) as Alicent Hightower, Matt Smith (Morbius) as Prince Daemon Targaryen, Rhys Ifans (The King's Man) as Ser Otto Hightower and Steve Toussaint (It's a Sin) as Lord Corlys Velaryon, plus Fabien Frankel (The Serpent), Ewan Mitchell (Saltburn) and Sonoya Mizuno (Shortcomings).
HBO is also adding new faces to the mix, with Clinton Liberty (This Is Christmas) as Addam of Hull, Jamie Kenna (Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story) as Ser Alfred Broome, Kieran Bew (Warrior) as Hugh, Tom Bennett (Black Ops) as Ulf, Tom Taylor (Love at First Sight) as Lord Cregan Stark and Vincent Regan (One Piece) as Ser Rickard Thorne. They join Abubakar Salim (Napoleon) as Alyn of Hull, Gayle Rankin (Perry Mason) as Alys Rivers, Freddie Fox (The Great) as Ser Gwayne Hightower and Simon Russell Beale (Thor: Love and Thunder) as Ser Simon Strong among the season two newcomers.
When it premieres in June, House of the Dragon's second season will arrive two years after the first debuted in 2022. Game of Thrones was always going to spark spinoff shows. Indeed, when HBO started thinking about doing a prequel six years ago, before the huge fantasy hit had even finished its run, it was hardly surprising. And, when the US network kept adding ideas to its list — including a Jon Snow-focused series with Kit Harington (Eternals) reprising his famous role, novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg and an animated GoT show, to name just a few prequels and spinoffs that've been considered, but may or may not actually come to fruition — absolutely no one was astonished.
So far, just House of the Dragon has hit screens; however, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, the Dunk and Egg adaptation, is now due in 2025.
WithHouse of the Dragon, Game of Thrones' first spinoff jumps back into House Targaryen's history. When it initially roared into streaming queues, it became an instant success. Accordingly, as it delivered more complicated GoT realm relationships, flowing long blonde hair, dragons, stabbings and fights for power — and plenty to fuel a drinking game, as we created — it was quickly renewed for season two.
The series kicked off 172 years before the birth of Daenerys and her whole dragon-flying, nephew-dating, power-seeking story, and gave HBO its largest American audience for any new original series in its history when it debuted. If you're thinking that House of the Dragon is basically a case of new show, same squabbles, as it was easy to foresee it would be, you're right. It's pretty much Game of Thrones with different faces bearing now well-known surnames — and more dragons.
If you haven't yet caught up with the show so far, it dives into the battle for the Iron Throne before the one we all watched between 2011–19. Paddy Considine (The Third Day) started the series King Viserys — and it's exactly who should be his heir that sparked all the Succession-style fuss. The words "succession" and "successor" (and "heir" as well) got bandied around constantly, naturally. Also, Australian actors Milly Alcock and Ryan Corr were among the stars.
This latest adaptation of George RR Martin's popular fantasy books — based on Fire & Blood, specifically — is bound to continue on for more than just two seasons, but that's all that's confirmed for the moment.
Check out the duelling trailers (and the trailer for the duelling trailers) for House of the Dragon season two below:
House of the Dragon streams Down Under via Foxtel and Binge in Australia, and SoHo, Sky Go and Neon in New Zealand, with season two arriving on Monday, June 17, 2024. Read our full review of season one.
Images: HBO.