It looks as though you will need to be prepared for battle during the summer holidays, as Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon will debut on August 21, 2022. It seems that HBO are setting it up as a rival to Prime Video’s Lord of the Rings prequel series The Rings of Power, which starts on September 2, 2022.
HBO have also released a poster, which features a fiery dragon egg, and several new images of characters including King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine), Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans). The show will star Matt Smith and Emma D’Arcy as Targaryen’s children, who are rivals, due to him naming his daughter as his heir and refusing to shift the title to his son when he is born.
Set 200 years before Game of Thrones, the show sees the Targaryens at the height of their powers, with 15 dragons under their command. It looks as though Princess Rhaenyra (D’Arcy) and Alicent (Cooke) were childhood friends, as one of the images shows them as children. It also seems as though Alicent and Daemon (Smith) may be romantically entangled. Another image shows Rhaenys (Eve Best) in an embrace with Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Touissant).
Considine, Smith and D’Arcy all have the signature long white-silver hair we are used to seeing from the Targaryen dynasty. A new image of Daemon shows him in a black tunic, with many silver rings and a black silver-topped cane. The Hightowers are pictured in warmer tones – browns and golds, lit by candles.
Images have also been released of Sonoya Mizuno as Mysaria and Fabien Frankel as Ser Criston Cole. He is in light silver armour, looking like a typical medieval knight and she is in a white hooded cloak with tree-like veins on it. You can see the poster and other images on the House of the Dragon Twitter feed;
August 21. #HouseoftheDragon pic.twitter.com/xH6T7b9sa9
— House of the Dragon (@HouseofDragon) March 30, 2022
While we wait until August and September for the two epic fantasy series to commence battle, check out our guide to the best fantasy movies.