Like the poor victims of King’s Landing in the run-up to the Game Of Thrones finale, there’s a chance you might have felt a bit burned by the end of HBO’s epic fantasy series. But even the most Thrones-sceptic viewer will likely have their interest piqued by the first trailer for upcoming prequel spin-off series House Of The Dragon – depicting the reign of the Targaryen family 200 years before the events of the original show. Because if the divisive (and, to be clear, not universally disliked) final episodes of Thrones have gone down as something of a disappointment, it’s hard not to get excited by a trailer featuring the return of the Iron Throne, those bleach-blonde wigs, and shots of dragon skulls. Check out the teaser here:
In there we get glimpses of Matt Smith’s Prince Daemon Targaryen, Olivia Cooke’s Lady Alicent Hightower, and Paddy Considine’s King Viserys Targaryen – among a whole bunch of intriguing new faces. While the start of Game Of Thrones found Daenerys’ dynasty all but snuffed out and requiring some major rebuilding, in this era of Westeros’ history they’re a ruling family about to face a civil war known as the Dance Of Dragons.
While A Song Of Ice And Fire enthusiasts will likely know some of what to expect from the twisted Targaryen history, it’ll be the first time that history has been explored on screen – and die-hard fans of the books will likely be happy to see the book’s more extreme version of the Iron Throne visualised in this trailer, with melted swords not just forming the seat itself, but spilling down the stairs into a mass of mangled metal. Who’s doing the risk assessment on that one?
House Of The Dragon is created by George RR Martin himself, alongside Ryan J. Condal. Regular Thrones director Miguel Sapochnik is acting as showrunner alongside Condal – and is directing episodes along with Clare Kilner, Geeta V. Patel and Greg Yaitanes. The series is set to arrive in 2022 – brace yourself for Thrones-mania to return once more.