“House of the Dragon” Season 2
- Bethany Antonia, Emma D’Arcy, Eve Best, Ewan Mitchell, Fabien Frankel, Freddie Fox, George R. R. Martin, Harry Collett, Jefferson Hall, Kurt Egyiawan, Matt Smith, Matthew Needham, Olivia Cooke, Paul Kennedy, Phia Saban, Phoebe Campbell, Rhys Ifans, Ryan J. Condal, Sonoya Mizuno, Steve Toussaint, Tom Glynn-Carney
Dustin Chase
The distinction between film and television was very clear in the 1990s. The rise of streaming services blurred those lines when Netflix, Apple, and HBO invested as much into series production as their film divisions. Post-pandemic analytics continue to reveal that more audiences prefer watching content at home than in theaters. That’s terrible news for films like “The Fall Guy” and “Furiosa” but encouraging for big-budget shows.
“Game of Thrones” did two things simultaneously. It initiated the return of what we once called “water cooler discussions.” Most watched the same show, one episode at a time, and couldn’t wait to discuss it with friends and colleagues the next day. The hunger for more content from George R. R. Martin’s vast universe quickly spawned “Thrones’ prequel “House of the Dragon” in 2022.
“My fear, in the first season, would anyone watch,” showrunner Ryan J. Condal said in a press conference early this week. Many people watched “House of the Dragon” and found it had better viewership in season one than “Game of Thrones” seasons 1-6. With “House of the Dragon” Season 2 about to debut on June 16th, critics were given a look at the first two episodes. There are no plot spoilers in this article, but it’s evident from the two episodes we saw that budgets have increased. The new season’s opening scene shows the cinematic quality and freedom.
How and where the season begins will be a nostalgic surprise for fans. Both in the title sequence and the location where the story picks up. This season’s episodes will move more at a “Game of Thrones” pace. We also travel outside Kings Landing far more than last season. This allows more creativity within the editing, as characters who were all living under one roof previously are now spread out. “It’s a difficult second album,” admitted Matthew Needham, who plays creepy Lord Larys, the foot fetishist. “We don’t want to disappoint anybody.”
Die-hard fans of “Thrones” were skeptical if “Dragon,” with an entirely new cast and showrunner, could live up to the most Emmy-awarded drama series. By the dramatic conclusion of episode 10, which left everyone on a usual cliffhanger, “Dragon” had done just that. “The path to victory now is one of violence,” Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) warns at the beginning of the season. “Thrones” was always like a devastating chess game, where those in power made decisions that often resulted in the death or misery of others. The game aspect is more evident than ever in season 2, the first episode, “A Son for a Son.” It is easily one of the best episodes in the new series’ history and is also guaranteed to be its most controversial.
Emmy award-winning composer Ramin Djawadi, who scored both “Thrones” and season 1 of “Dragon,” returns with a perfect blend of familiar sounds from the past and ambitious new music. Episode one will have you tearing up, hairs on your arm raised, and certainly one, if not two, moments of hands covering your mouth in shock. Condal has promised more dragons this season, five new fire breathers, to be exact. When asked how they get into character, Harry Collett, who portrays Prince Jace Velaryon, said when you walk into a set and you can pick up a scroll lying on a table, and inside, it’s handwritten; the detail and quality make it easy to assume the role.