Could there have been even more recasting in House Targaryen? 

As the dust settles on the first season of House of the Dragon and work underway on its second, author George R. R. Martin has granted us some insight behind the scenes. With the show drawn from his chronicle of Targaryen history, Fire and Blood, decisions had to be made as to where to begin the show in the Westerosi timeline.

Now, thanks to a lengthy interview given to Penguin Random House, and moderated by fellow author David Anthony Durham, we understand that Martin’s instincts were different from what ended up onscreen. Apparently, the author was keen to start the show even further back in time:

“I would have begun it like 40 years earlier with the episode I would have called ‘The Heir and the Spare,’ in which Jaehaerys’ two sons, Aemon and Baelon, are alive. Aemon dies accidentally when a Myrish crossbowman shoots him by accident on Tarth, and then Jaehaerys has to decide who becomes the new heir. Is it the daughter of the older son who’s just died, or is it the second son, who has sons of his own and is a man, and she’s just a teenage girl?”

However, he admits this would have demanded even more time and recasting than we saw in the show; during Season 1 the principal female characters shot up from late teens to 30-ish, and their various offspring shot up between episodes too.

Martin also gives further insight into the writer’s room, saying:

“One of the writers wanted to begin it later, with Aemma dying. Skip the Great Council, skip the tournament, a scream sounds out, Aemma is dead, that’s where you begin. That was one possibility. Another of the writers wanted to begin even later than that, with Viserys dying. But what happens there? Then you have to present all that material in flashbacks or dialogue, that becomes challenging, too. But we discussed all these possibilities.”

The Rise of the Dragon

With the writer’s thoughts on the recent season finale, there’s also some entertaining talk of watching rough cuts of episodes with the suggestion of deleted scenes and bloopers.

You can watch the whole interview here. Running to 1 hour and 15 minutes, it exists primarily to promote Fire and Blood as well as The Rise of the Dragon – a new coffee table art book:

No more recasting

Apparently, we’re done with such changes for now – that’s if showrunner Ryan Condal is to be believed. He recently told Deadline:

“We tell the story in real time from here forward. The actors are playing these characters until the end. We’re not recasting anybody. We’re not making any huge jumps forward in time. We are now in the Dance of the Dragons, and we’re gonna tell that story.”

With filming taking place throughout the year, we’re expecting House of the Dragon Season 2 to land in 2024. We’ll keep you posted.