George R.R. Martin says “the best is yet to come” on ‘House Of The Dragon’

end of episode 8, picks up immediately the next morning in episode 9, as Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) starts making moves -- ones that seem to counter what was set in place by the king and his council many years prior. Not only that, but the queen’s sons prove just how much of a hot mess they are while Princess Rhaenys Targaryen (Eve Best) finally finds herself provoked to get up off the sidelines and take action in the battle of succession for the Iron Throne. As the penultimate episode set up the season 1 finale, which will surely end with a fiery fight between families, fans took to social media to share their thoughts about the queen’s change of plans and that shocking show of restraint that ended the aptly titled “The Green Council.” [: Spoilers for season 1, episode 9.] With the king now dead, after a miraculously long health battle that ended with him crying into the night, the queen wastes no time to start making moves of her own, believing that Aegon Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney) is now the rightful heir to the throne -- and not Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), who was previously promised to rule after her father’s death and even seemed to finally heal the festering wounds between her and her former best friend. However, the news of the king’s death is not yet widely known, allowing the queen and her father, the Hand of the King Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifan), to call their own small council (err “Green Council”) to determine the line of succession.

Zack Sharf Ever since “House of the Dragon” started its debut season, fans have been sensing queer undertones in the relationship between Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower. The characters were played in their younger years by Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, the latter of whom confirmed to Variety that the actors discussed the queer intimacy that might exist between their characters. “I mean, we kind of started that discourse,” Carey said. “We were in the rehearsal room…I believe it’s Episode 4. It’s not necessarily something we had talked about yet. We were doing a scene, and Milly and I looked at each other like, ‘It kind of felt like we were about to kiss? That was really weird!’ And so we talked about it.” 

Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy.In a TikTok video posted to HBO Max's verified account on Oct. 1, the  stars are seen discussing their favorite drink in the 20-second clip that has since gone viral and garnered more than 14.6 million views.

Fans of “House Of The Dragon” are annoyed with the frequent “time jumps” (two in 8 episodes, yes!) in the series. However, George RR Martin defended screenwriter Ryan J Condal and says that both time leaps have been “handled very well.”

House Of the Dragon season one.Throughout the first season of the Game Of Thrones spin-off, viewers saw various members of the Targaryen family through several iterations, with Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke replacing Milly Alcock and Emily Carey as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Queen Alicent Hightower, while Tom Glynn-Carney and Ewan Mitchell took over the roles of Prince Aegon Targaryen and Prince Aemond “One-Eye” Targaryen.However, fans had noted the omission of their youngest brother, Daeron Targaryen, who didn’t feature at all in the first season.Martin however, has since cleared up any confusion, explaining Daeron’s absence in his latest blog post.“Yes, Alicent gave Viserys four children, three sons and a daughter,” wrote the Game Of Thrones author. “Their youngest son Daeron is down in Oldtown, we just did not have the time to work him in this season.”Also in the blog post, Martin took the opportunity to praise the performance of actor Paddy Considine, noting that his portrayal of King Viserys was “more powerful and tragic and fully-fleshed” that his own written version.“Kudos to Eileen Shim, the scriptwriter, to Geeta Patel, the director, to our incredible cast… and particularly to Paddy Considine, for his portrayal of King Viserys, the First of His Name,” Martin wrote.“The character he created (with Ryan [Condal] and Sara [Hess] and the rest of our writers) for the show is so much more powerful and tragic and fully-fleshed than my own version in Fire & Blood that I am half tempted to go back and rip up those chapters and rewrite the whole history of his reign.He added: “Paddy deserves an Emmy for this episode alone.

House of the Dragon moves at an extremely different pace than Game of Thrones and George R.R. Martin is giving his take on the infamous time jumps and how long he thinks the new HBO series should last.

Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin sent him a text praising his performance in spin-off House Of The Dragon.The actor plays King Viserys Targaryen in the prequel series, set 200 years before events in Game Of Thrones. The series is adapted from Martin’s novel Fire & Blood, which documents a war of succession among House Targaryen known as the ‘Dance Of The Dragons’.Speaking to GQ Hype, Considine said he got Martin’s seal of approval, saying: “I got a text message that simply said: ‘Your Viserys is better than my Viserys’’.“It was from George R.R.

House of the Dragon watch party, you've come to the right place. While the citizens of tend to imbibe beer, wine, and the occasional milk of the poppy, it's an Italian cocktail that has the fandom thirsty this week, thanks to star Emma D'Arcy's recommendation.In a clip that's currently going viral, D'Arcy and their co-star Olivia Cooke—who play Princess Rhaenyra and , respectively—reveal their favorite drinks, and D'Arcy leans in just a bit while describing a Negroni “sbagliato” style, which, as they explain, means with prosecco.

HBO has released a trailer for the latest episode of House Of The Dragon, setting up what looks to be a dramatic conclusion to the first season of the Game of Thrones prequel.In the episode eight trailer, which you can watch below, we can see that the story has been thrust even further into the future with a second time jump, with Aegon, Aemond and Rhaenyra Targaryen’s sons all being recast with older actors.The first time jump came in episode six, with Emma d’Arcy and Olivia Cooke taking over as the adult versions of Rhaenyra and young Alicent. The two characters had previously been played by Milly Alcock and Emily Carey, respectively.Elsewhere in the trailer, we see Rhaenys sat upon the throne at Driftmark in the absence of her severely injured husband, Lord Corlys Velaryon aka The Sea Snake.In a voiceover, Matt Smith’s character Daemon remarks: “The Sea Snake has taken a grave wound in battle in the Stepstones.”Another character later adds: “Who will take the Driftwood throne?” suggesting Rhaenys’ time upon it could be short-lived.After seeing Daemon get his hands on a precious dragon egg, the trailer then ends on an ominous note, with Rhys Ifans’ Otto Hightower warning: “The threat of war looms.”You can watch the trailer below.Last week, Game Of Thrones author George R.R.

Selome Hailu Viewership of “House of the Dragon” Episode 6 drew 3% more viewers than Episode 5, Variety has learned exclusively. The series is now seeing steady bumps with each installation; Episode 6 marks its third consecutive week of growth. (Episodes 4 showed a 5% increase and Episode 5 showed a 3% increase, as exclusively reported by Variety.) The calculation of these increases account for both cable viewership across four airings on HBO on Sunday, as recorded by Nielsen, and viewers across HBO Max and other HBO platforms through the night. The specific count of people who watched “House of the Dragon” Episode 6 has not been disclosed by Warner Bros. Discovery, though Variety was able to confirm the percent increase in viewership. Additionally, as of Sept. 20, Season 1 was seeing an average of 29 million viewers per episode, a significant feat for any cable series, even with the help of streaming.

EXCLUSIVE: There is another change in the executive producer ranks of HBO’s House of the Dragon. Jocelyn Diaz will not be returning to the Game Of Thrones sequel as it is headed into its second season. Sources said she had a one-year deal with an option for a second, which is not being picked up.

House of the Dragon fans who grew fond of Milly Alcock’s young Princess Rhaenyra and Emily Carey’s young Alicent Hightower didn’t seem to suffer from too much whiplash Sunday after seeing them replaced by older actresses Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke.

Emily Carey and Milly Alcock kicked off the first season of House of The Dragon as Alicent and Rhaenyra, and after just appearing in a handful of episodes.

House Of The Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal has addressed the possibility of young Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower returning in future episodes.In the sixth episode of the Game Of Thrones prequel which premiered on Sunday (September 25), the show jumped forward a decade and debuted new actors in the roles of Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Alicent (Olivia Cooke), replacing Milly Alcock and Emily Carey respectively.According to Condal, who will be the sole showrunner on season two following the departure of Miguel Sapochnik, the second season has been mapped out already and won’t feature the return of the younger versions of the characters.Asked by Variety if this is the last we’ll see of Alcock and Carey, Condal said: “I mean, look, I don’t know.” In regard to season two, he said that young Rhaenyra and Alicent “are not part of the story that we’re telling, yet. That’s not a thing that we’re doing right now.”Condal however didn’t shut down the possibility entirely for future seasons, saying House Of The Dragon can get “a little bit more fancy” in its narrative structure compared to Game Of Thrones.“There are things that we haven’t fully sorted out,” Condal added.

[Warning: Spoilers for “House of the Dragon” season 1, episode six, which is aptly titled “The Princess and the Queen”.]

SPOILER ALERT: Contains details from Episode 6 of “House of the Dragon,” airing Sunday, Sept. 25, on HBO and HBO Max.Episode 6 of “House of the Dragon” introduces a dramatic 10-year time jump. After a decade, expect a lot of changes: For starters, Princess Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent are portrayed by new actresses; the former is now played by Emma D’Arcy instead of Milly Alcock; the latter by Olivia Cooke instead of Emily Carey. Alicent’s kids, who we last saw as babies and toddlers, are now bratty teenagers.

“House of the Dragon” just revealed that Larys Strong is climbing it. SPOILER ALERT: Contains details from Episode 6 of “House of the Dragon,” airing Sunday, Sept. 25, on HBO and HBO Max.Episode 6 of “House of the Dragon” introduced a dramatic, decadelong time jump. After 10 years, we can expect a lot of changes.

Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer SPOILER ALERT: This story discusses major plot developments in the first six episodes of “House of the Dragon,” currently airing on HBO and streaming on HBO Max. If one of the big narrative challenges of “Game of Thrones” was managing the geographical sprawl of its many interweaving storylines, the challenge for the first season of its prequel series, “House of the Dragon,” is stretching the story of the civil war within the Targaryen family over multiple decades. George R.R. Martin’s bestselling book about the conflagration, “Fire & Blood,” spans generations — children are born and grow into adulthood within the two warring factions of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her former best friend turned stepmother, Queen Alicent Hightower.

, Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke finally made their debut as older versions of Prince Rhaenyra Targaryen and Queen Alicent Hightower, respectively. The two stars take over the roles originated by Milly Alcock and Emily Carey after the prequel series jumped forward 10 years in episode six. And it’s safe to say that the relationship between the former best friends is as complicated as ever as family in-fighting and politicking for the Iron Throne continues to drive a massive wedge between them.