‘House Of The Dragon’: Paddy Considine says George R.R. Martin texted him “your Viserys is better than my Viserys”

Thank goodness Olivia Cooke didn’t take the original note that her character should come across as a medieval woman for Trump. When the British actor took over the role as Alicent Hightower in HBO’s House of the Dragon, she focused on how she’s coming from “a place of undying love and protection for her children.” Here, the actress reflects on her first season of the drama and how folks shouldn’t assume she’s a straight-up bad woman.

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.

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.

Zack Sharf George R.R. Martin wrote in an Oct. 11 blog post that “House of the Dragon” will need to run a total of 40 episodes if it wants to fully tell the story of the Targaryen civil war, commonly referred to as the Dance of Dragons. The first season of the HBO prequel series runs 10 episodes, so Martin is envisioning a four-season run for the show. HBO has already greenlit a second season of “House of the Dragon.” “When I was a boy, shows had 39 episodes a season,” Martin wrote. “By the time I was writing for ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ it was down to 22.  Cable shrunk that even further. ‘The Sopranos’ had 13 episodes per season, but just a few years later, ‘Game of Thrones’ had only 10 (and not even that, those last two seasons). If ‘House of the Dragon’ had 13 episodes per season, maybe we could have shown all the things we had to ‘time jump’ over…though that would have risked having some viewers complain that the show was too ‘slow,’ that ‘nothing happened.'”

House Of The Dragon, as he’s “one of those people” who doesn’t like watching himself.In the eighth episode of the Game Of Thrones prequel series which aired on Sunday (October 9), King Viserys Targaryen (Considine) pulled off his gold half-mask to reveal that his face had succumbed to the disease he had suffered with throughout the season.This disease later results in his death, as confirmed in a trailer for the next episode, titled ‘The Green Council’, where it’s proclaimed that “the King is dead”.Asked if he’d seen his final episode by The New York Times, Considine said: “No, I haven’t, and I’m not sure if I ever will.”He added: “I haven’t seen anything beyond episode two, really. Some people don’t like to watch themselves, and I’m one of those people.

 House of the DragonAs closes its chapter on King Viserys' reign, star Paddy Considine is looking back at the life and death of his beloved character. The 49-year-old English actor will not, however, be at his performance on-screen. In season 1, episode 8, «The Lord of the Tides,» Considine's Viserys finally meets his death after a decades-long reign and health struggle with flesh-eating leprosy — brought on, it seems, by cuts that refused to heal from sitting on the Iron Throne. In a new interview with, Considine is asked whether he has yet watched his final episode.«No, I haven’t, and I’m not sure if I ever will,» the actor responds. «I haven’t seen anything beyond episode 2, really. Some people don’t like to watch themselves, and I’m one of those people.

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.

Game Of Thrones author George R.R. Martin has said that “the best is yet to come” on the spin-off series House Of The Dragon.The writer has reflected on the first half of the show’s debut season in his blog, and referenced how Milly Alcock and Emily Carey have now finished playing younger versions of Rhaenyra and Alicent respectively (Emma d’Arcy and Olivia Cooke took over the roles in the most recent episode).“The show opened strong and has only been getting stronger,” Martin wrote. “Milly Alcock and Emily Carey were incredible as young Rhaenyra and young Alicent, were they not?“With Sunday’s episode, Emma d’Arcy and Olivia Cooke took over as the adult versions of the characters.

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.