A “bloody” war is coming to Westeros.
The first teaser for season two of HBO’s House of the Dragon dropped on Saturday, teasing a brutal and merciless war between the Targaryens and the Hightowers.
The teaser of action-packed scenes brought several familiar faces back to the screen — including Rhaenyra Targaryen ( Emma D’Arcy), Alicent Hightower ( Olivia Cooke), Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and Daemon Targaryen ( Matt Smith) — as tensions between the two former best friends set to reach a crescendo following the devastating season one finale.
Season two picks up following the tragic — and war-igniting — death of Rhaenyra’s son, Prince Lucerys “Luke” Velaryon (Elliot Grihault), at the hands of Alicent’s son Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). Luke and his dragon fell to their death after the two prince’s dragons antagonized each other, and the news of her son’s death — as well as the tragic miscarriage she’d experienced in the same episode — made Rhaenyra, who seemed keen to opt for peace rather than war after her father’s death, yearn for blood.
In the teaser, Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best) warns Rhaenyra what is to come as tensions mount between her and Alicent.
“There is no war so hateful to the Gods as a war between kin,” Rhaenys says as various snippets of scenes from the season are shown, including several intense battlefield shots. “And no war so bloody as a war between dragons.”
Alicent, whose son, Aegon II, ascended the throne following the death of King Viserys in the season one finale, against the late king’s own wishes, has a slightly different perspective as war rages around her.
“The war will be fought, many will die, and the victor will eventually ascend the throne,” she says during the teaser, indicating the blunt and brutal mindset she’ll have as she advises her son, the contentious new king, on the battle.
Her father, though, admits fault as he says at one point in the teaser that, “Errors were made in the hours following King Viserys’ death.”
The teaser, which premiered at the CCXP convention in Brazil, shows other moments from the season to come that include a vengeance-seeking Daemon fighting mercilessly, Prince Aemond eyeing the Iron Throne, and, of course, plenty of massive dragons.
The Game of Thrones prequel series was an immediate hit as it aired in the fall of 2022, earning HBO its biggest series premiere ever, with 9.99 million viewers across HBO and HBO Max.
A second season of the show — which tells the story of the fall of the house of Targaryen, roughly 200 years before GoT’s Daenerys Targaryen vies for the throne herself — was greenlit before the second episode of the first season had even aired.
The show’s co-creator, Ryan Condal, previously told Entertainment Weekly that season 1 set the stage for an even more intense second season.
“Season 1 was setting the table for a very bloody feast to come,” he said after the inaugural season’s finale. “The reason that I wanted to really spend our time doing this is because I wanted everybody to understand who all of these characters were and the long history they had behind them — behind their fathers and their grandfathers — that led us to this point where they end up fighting a civil war against each other.”
The new season premieres in summer 2024, per the new trailer. Season 1 of House of the Dragon can be streamed in full on HBOMax.
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