'House of the Dragon' Season 2 Finally Has a Trailer—Here's Everything We Know So Far

The trailer for House of the Dragon season 2 is finally out!

As a large part of the fandom suspected, the much-anticipated first trailer for the second season of House of the Dragon was released on December 2, 2023, as part of the show’s panel at CCXP 2023 in São Paulo, Brazil.

The trailer, which predictably spread like wildfire across the Internet in a matter of minutes, shows us glimpses of all our favorite characters as they gear up to truly get their hands bloody in the Dance of the Dragons. 

Rhaenyra and Alicent, both seen in their royal regalia as well as anguished over the choices they’ve made, ponder the cost of the throne while also realizing that there’s no stopping the civil war that is well underway—no matter how destructive it will be, as Rhaenys warns Rhaenyra. And then there are the realm’s most unhinged second sons, Daemon and Aemond, who are both ready to be considerable powers beside their respective thrones—and that look Aemond gives the empty Iron Throne makes me think that he still very much believes himself to be the best choice rather than his elder brother. 

Tthe trailer, armies march through Westeros and dragons soar overhead—some with riders we’ve never seen in the air before, like Daemon’s daughter Baela Targaryen. And for those who have read Fire & Blood, which serves as the show’s original material, there is also a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it scene that hints that a very significant plot point involving Queen Helaena is rapidly coming our way. 

When is season 2 of House of the Dragon coming out?

Just like the first season of House of the Dragon dominated Sundays back in the summer of 2022, the show’s second season will return to do the same in the summer of 2024. As reported by Entertainment Weekly, HBO head Casey Bloys confirmed the expected premiere date at an event at Warner Bros. Discovery’s headquarters in New York City.

“They are done shooting and in post,” Bloys said. “We hope to have that early summer.”

This release window was further confirmed by the show’s first trailer, which was released on social media with the caption “SUMMER 2024”.

Who is in House of the Dragon season 2?

With no more time jumps expected in Season 2, House of the Dragon will stick with the majority of the cast for the next season. That means everybody’s favorite duo, Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy, will return as Alicent Hightower and Rhaenyra Targaryen, respectively, alongside Matt Smith as Daemon Targaryen, Steve Toussaint as the Sea Snake, Corlys Velaryon, and Eve Best as the Queen Who Never Was, Rhaenys Targaryen.

For the Greens, Aegon II Targaryen and Aemond Targaryen will also continue to be played by Tom Glynn-Carney and Ewan Mitchell, with Phia Saban as their sister Helaena. Grandfather Otto Hightower will be brought to life once again by Welsh actor Rhys Ifans. We can also expect to see much more of Matthew Needham as Larys Strong and Fabien Frankel as whiny Commander of the Kingsguard Ser Criston Cole.

Of course, a sprawling world such as the Seven Kingdoms means an equally massive cast of characters. Readers of Fire and Blood—the in-universe chronicle of the three centuries of Targaryen reign that serves as the basis for House of the Dragon—know that we are bound to see some new and very beloved faces in future seasons.

The first round of casting announcements included four new characters, which will be listed here with no spoilers, but with a huge, meaningful glance to those who know. Aboubakar Salim will star as Alyn of Hull, a sailor in the Velaryon fleet who already fought with Lord Corlys in the Stepstones—so we can expect him to fight for the Blacks.

On the Greens’ side, we’ll see the addition of Freddie Fox as Gwayne Hightower, son of Otto Hightower and brother to Queen Alicent. In the book, he’s just the younger of her unspecified number of brothers, but in the show, he has been bumped up to Otto’s heir.

Then there are Simon Russell Beale and Gayle Rankin, who will play Ser Simon Strong—great-uncle to the gone-too-soon Harwin Strong and his brother Larys—and Alys Rivers, respectively. They are based in Harrenhal, the greatest castle in the Seven Kingdoms and a strategic stronghold whenever winds of war are blowing in Westeros.

Fans expected at least another casting announcement, one that included some more major characters—the last of Queen Alicent’s children, Prince Daeron Targaryen, first of all. George R.R. Martin has already mentioned Prince Daeron as having been fostering with his Hightower family in Oldtown during the events of the first season of House of the Dragon.

And then there’s Cregan Stark, the current Lord of Winterfell, who we should likely be seeing as we follow Prince Jacaerys Velaryon’s mission to gain allies for his mother among the Northern houses. Neither of the characters has been officially announced, but they’re sure to pop up as the show progresses since there is no Dance of the Dragons without them.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Emily Carey, who played young Alicent Hightower, also shared that there had been talks about both her and Milly Alcock (young Rhaenyra) returning for flashbacks. This has yet to be confirmed.

What will House of the Dragon season 2 be about?

The second season of House of the Dragon will see the civil war that is the Dance of Dragons kick off in earnest. We’ve already put together some predictions for what will come next, but few details are confirmed yet.

“We will get to the spectacle,” showrunner Ryan Condal told The Times. “But you have to understand these people’s complexities before they’re thrown into war. Series two will hit the rhythms people came to expect from the middle run of Game of Thrones, but it will have been earned, and viewers will feel the tragedies because we put the work in.”

The actors have definitely put their work in if what Tom Glynn-Carney revealed before the official start of production on season 2 is to be believed. Speaking at the Game of Thrones Fan Convention in December 2022, he said that they were “training very hard and we are making sure our bodies are in good enough condition for how strenuous season 2 is gonna be.”

As noted above, there will be no huge time jumps in season 2, so the story will be told in a slower, more linear fashion.

Where is House of the Dragon season 2 filming?

Many of the locations used in season 1, such as Cornwall and Derbyshire in England, Cáceres in Spain, and Monsanto in Portugal, will be revisited in season 2.

Spanish fan site Los Siete Reinos has confirmed that House of the Dragon will return to shoot scenes in Cáceres in 2023, between March and June. This is the real-life location of King’s Landing, so there’s no surprise that we’ll be returning here.

How many seasons of House of the Dragon will there be?

George R.R. Martin has said he thinks there should be four seasons of House of the Dragon to tell the story fully. However, he also argued for 10 seasons of Game of Thrones and didn’t get them.

You’d think HBO would learn from the disaster that was Game of Thrones season 8 and take Martin’s advice on this one, yet it seems like season 2 of House of the Dragon will be shorter than the first one, with Deadline reporting in March 2023 that there will be eight episodes instead of 10.

HBO has so far only confirmed a second season of the show. We imagine that the number of seasons House of the Dragon receives will have a lot to do with how future seasons are received, so that means the pressure is on the show’s creatives to keep delivering. That same Deadline report revealed that discussions are still happening about whether House of the Dragon will have three seasons—with the third one seemingly already mapped out—or four, as in Martin’s original design.

Will House of the Dragon season 2 be impacted by the WGA strike?

Studios’ refusal to meet the reasonable demands of the WGA and the union’s subsequent strike have resulted in delays on several productions—as strikes are rightly meant to do. George R.R. Martin, himself a member of the Writers’ Guild, shared his support of the strike on his blog, saying that he wanted “to go on the record with my full and complete and unequivocal support of my Guild.”

However, according to both Martin and an article published by Variety at the beginning on May 2023, season 2 of House of the Dragon will continue full steam ahead. The scripts for the upcoming seasons were all completed before the start of the strike and House of the Dragon’s showrunner Ryan Condal says he is currently on set in a strictly producing role, without any writing-related work.

As most members of the WGA will tell you, writing doesn’t end when production begins, but Martin has assured fans that writing is most definitely complete on season 2. “The scripts for the eight [season 2] episodes [of House of the Dragon] were all finished months ago, long before the strike began,” Martin wrote in his blog post. “Every episode has gone through four or five drafts and numerous rounds of revisions, to address HBO notes, my notes, budget concerns, etc. There will be no further revisions. The writers have done their jobs; the rest is in the hands of the directors, cast and crew … and of course the dragons.”

The strike has predictably halted pre-production work on the new Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Being in the very early phases of development, there’s not much progress to be made without writers. Martin confirmed this in his blog post, stating that the show’s writers room “has closed for the duration” of the strike.

This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the work being covered here wouldn’t exist.

(featured image: HBO)

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