The world of "<keyword id="20023654" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Game-of-Thrones" source="keywords">Game of Thrones</keyword>" is set to expand further as a new spin-off series has started production, American premium cable network <keyword id="19911380" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="HBO" source="keywords" meta.keywordsubtype="org" meta.entityname="HBO" meta.hostid="261" meta.entityid="HBO">HBO</keyword> has announced. The show, titled "<keyword id="21569054" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="A-Knight-of-the-Seven-Kingdoms" source="keywords">A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms</keyword>", commenced filming in Belfast, Ireland. It is based on author <keyword id="21139740" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="George-RR-Martin" source="keywords">George RR Martin</keyword>'s novella "<keyword id="13352364" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="The-Hedge-Knight" source="Orion">The Hedge Knight</keyword>", HBO said in a press release. Five actors -- Finn Bennett, Bertie Carvel, Tanzyn Crawford, Daniel Ings and Sam Spruell -- have joined the already-announced cast members <keyword id="21215649" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Peter-Claffey" source="Orion">Peter Claffey</keyword> and Dexter Sol Ansell. The six-episode show is the second spin-off to epic fantasy series "Game of Thrones", which ran for eight seasons on HBO from 2011 to 2019. The first spin-off, "<keyword id="20023656" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="House-of-the-Dragon" source="keywords">House of the Dragon</keyword>", recently returned on HBO with its second season. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" will follow the exploits of the knight <keyword id="21569056" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Ser-Duncan-the-Tall" source="keywords">Ser Duncan the Tall</keyword> (Claffey) and his young squire, Egg (Ansell), roughly 100 years before the events of "Game of Thrones" and 100 years after the events of "House of the Dragon". "A century before the events of 'Game of Thrones', two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros... a young, naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. "Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends," the official logline read. In the show, the two protagonists will encounter several members of the <keyword id="21678603" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="Targaryen-dynasty" source="keywords">Targaryen dynasty</keyword> - including Prince Aerion Targaryen (Bennett), Prince Baelor Targaryen (Carvel) and Prince Maekar Targaryen (Spruell) - along with another knight known as the Laughing Storm, Ser Lyonel Baratheon (Ings) and a puppeteer named Tanselle (Crawford). Sarah Adina Smith and Owen Harris will direct three episodes each of the show. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is written and executive produced by Martin and Ira Parker. Ryan Condal, Vince Gerardis, Harris and Sarah Bradshaw will also serve as executive producers.

GOT spin-off 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms'—set for 100 years after 'House of the Dragon'—begins production

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"House of the Dragon" season two picks up immediately after season one. </li><li>Unlike the first season, however, the first four episodes given to critics don't feature time jumps.</li></ul>In season two of "House of the Dragon," Rhaenys Targaryen, the Queen Who Never Was, tells Rhaenrya Targaryen that eventually, no one will remember when the war started.Was it when Alicent Hightower placed her son Aegon II on the throne? Was it when Alicent's second son, Aemond, killed Rhaenyra's son, Lucerys Velaryon, on dragonback? Or was it, perhaps, when Lucerys took Aemond's eye as a child?<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-best-tv-show-of-the-year-2022-12">Season one of "House of the Dragon"</a> took us back even further, to the moment when the Great Council decided to install Viserys as the heir to the Iron Throne over his cousin Rhaenys. It was devoted to setting the stage for the eventual war, sometimes to its own detriment. In those first 10 episodes, treading through the series of betrayals that led to the Targaryen conflict was frequently prioritized over cohesively developing the show's characters. It's more evident now that season one, despite its grand scale (and sometimes indulgent dragon sequences), was the setup.<a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-trailer-release-date-cast">Season two</a> is the beginning of the payoff.<div type="image" title="ewan mitchell as aemond targaryen, wearing black clothes, a sword at his hip, and an eyepatch over his left eye. he has long blonde hair pulled half back" height="1280" width="1707" msid="110776779" hostid="261"></div>Gone are the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-character-appearance-changes-since-episode-one-2022-9">rapid time jumps</a> from the show's first season. Now — at least, in the four episodes provided to critics for review — we're <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-season-2-no-time-jumps-2022-10">more firmly anchored in the action of the present</a>. The series <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-season-1-episode-10-finale-recap-details-you-missed-2022-10">picks up immediately</a> in the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-finale-how-luke-dies-fire-and-blood-2022-10">aftermath of Lucerys' murder</a>. Lord Corlys Velaryon has lost an heir. Aegon's side, the Greens, has drawn first blood. Rhaenyra has lost a son."House of the Dragon" is still built on the pain of Westeros' most powerful mothers, but now it's more nuanced than the gratuitous and gory childbirth sequences that plagued season one. Emma D'Arcy's vulnerable, razor-sharp performance as Rhaenyra continues to be riveting, particularly as Rhaenrya mourns Lucerys' death and does her best to avoid plunging the continent into all-out war. On the other side, Alicent (an excellent Olivia Cooke) grapples with the implications of the path she's set her son on and its effects on her immediate family.<div type="image" title="Harry Collett, Emma D'Arcy, Oscar Eskinazi in &quot;House of the Dragon&quot; season 2" height="1280" width="1707" msid="110776781" hostid="261"></div>The <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-cast-photos-hbo-where-theyre-from-2022-9">ensemble cast</a> benefits greatly from the comparatively slower pace.In season one, the heirs to the <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-targaryen-family-tree-photos">Targaryen</a> and Velaryon dynasties were mostly deployed in service of greater narrative purpose and their parents' political machinations. But by season two, they're real players in the war: Aegon (a delightful Tom Glynn-Carney) preens and buckles under the pressures of ruling, while his brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell, both slippery and vulnerable) uses his own cunning — and his very big dragon — to find a foothold in court.In Rhaenyra's camp, her eldest son Jacaerys and Daemon and Laena Velaryon's <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-deleted-baela-and-rhaenys-scene-2022-12">eldest daughter Baela</a> are increasingly given further chances to prove their worth. And even <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-ryan-condal-daemon-targaryen-choking-scene-2022-10">Matt Smith's Daemon</a>, who has always been entertaining despite his inscrutable, seemingly inconsistent motives in season one, finally gets the chance to parse through whatever's going on inside his head.The show tends to falter when it turns its eye from the warring families to the small folk of King's Landing, or the minutiae of Westerosi regional politics (unless that's your thing). "House of the Dragon" makes a muted effort to explore the implications of war on the common people — dragons need a lot of sheep, and they have to come from someone's flock. Still, it's a fleeting inquiry that's quickly subsumed by whatever the Targaryens are doing at any given moment.And when it comes to council discussions about which houses have pledged allegiance to Aegon II or Rhaenyra, or the fleeting opinions of Lords who have yet to bear out true consequence, it can quickly get bogged down in the details.<div type="image" title="tom glynn-carney as aegon targaryen in house of the dragon. he's sitting in a high backed chair, playing with a steel dagger, and looking across a table" height="1280" width="1707" msid="110776780" hostid="261"></div>Still, "House of the Dragon" certainly delivers on sweeping spectacle when needed. However, it doesn't <a target="_blank" href="https://www.businessinsider.com/house-of-the-dragon-director-how-to-train-your-dragon-2022-10">bring out its dragons</a> willy-nilly, and that's for the better. As the closest thing to a weapon of mass destruction in this universe, both sides of the war understand that you can't take back a dragon on the battlefield. That hesitancy translates into a greater degree of restraint when it comes to actually throwing the dragons on screen, and makes the moments where they do come into the fray all the more impactful.Season two ultimately makes the show's first season feel like a prelude, and course-corrects some of the show's earlier impulses to cover vast swathes of history rather than dig into the characters driving it. Only time will tell if those characters still get a chance to shine and grow (or in some cases, devolve) as the war drags on.But for now, the first episodes are a good start."House of the Dragon" season two premieres June 16 on HBO.

This is the 'House of the Dragon' you've been waiting for &mdash; or at least, the beginning of it

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty" is a new book by Gina McIntyre.</li><li>In an exclusive shared with Insider, fans can see concept art and storyboards of Aegon's crowning.</li></ul>In the new book "House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty," author Gina McIntyre interviews cocreator Ryan Condal about the deeper motivations behind the main characters. One section about Aegon's crowning includes Condal's thoughts on the young king's hesitance to ascend the Iron Throne. For Condal, the character's emotional drives come in part from King Viserys' neglect."Aegon is a great example of neglect and indulgence," Condal says. "This is the medieval version of the millionaire's prodigal son. His mother was 15, and his father never paid any attention to him. His father deeply, deeply loved Aemma and Rhaenyra and was [only] having [more] kids to carry on the line. He really didn't want Aegon — he wanted Baelon, the son that killed his first wife."The first season of "House of the Dragon" covers the slow escalation of a multi-generational feud between two of Viserys' heirs, the young King Aegon Targaryen (led by Otto and Alicent Hightower) and Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (backed by Viserys' Targaryen loyalists). <div type="image" title="A two-page spread of a book about the television show &quot;House of the Dragon.&quot;" height="2068" width="3000" msid="97503595" hostid="261" sizebytes="480812"></div>In the pages from "Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty," you can see new interviews with the cast and creators as well as people who helped design the new locations of Westeros behind the scenes. <div type="image" title="A two-page spread of a book about the television show &quot;House of the Dragon&quot; that shows storyboards of King Aegon's coronation." height="2068" width="3000" msid="97503596" hostid="261" sizebytes="409584"></div>In the final two episodes of season one, Aegon is reluctantly dragged to his own coronation after King Viserys dies and his mother (Alicent) and grandfather (Otto) decide to crown the young man before Rhaenyra can claim her birthright. After he is crowned in the Dragonpit and sees the roars of the smallfolk, King Aegon smiles with a new satisfaction. But we'll have to wait for the upcoming second season to see how he actually goes about ruling his new kingdom, and how long it will take for Queen Rhaenyra to try to reclaim the seat of power."House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty" is out in bookstores now. Read <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/house-of-the-dragon" rel="">our breakdown of why the HBO fantasy series was the best TV show of 2022 here.</a>

'House of the Dragon' cocreator says Aegon's avoidance of the crown was driven by neglect: 'This is the medieval version of the millionaire's prodigal son'

<ul class="summary-list"><li>"House of the Dragon" casting director Kate Rhode James is featured in a new book about the show.</li><li>James talks about discovering actor Milly Alcock in <a href="https://insighteditions.com/products/game-of-thrones-house-of-the-dragon" target="_blank" rel="noopener">"Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty."</a></li></ul>In the new book "House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty," author Gina McIntyre reveals new details about how the <a href="https://www.insider.com/house-of-the-dragon-cast-photos-hbo-where-theyre-from-2022-9">show's stellar ensemble cast came together.</a>After finding her "punk rock" Rhaenyra in nonbinary actor Emma D'Arcy, casting director Kate Rhode James asked them to send photos from their teenage years.James was able to use those images of D'Arcy to help cast a younger performer to play Princess Rhaenyra in her teenage years.The casting director said in the book that it's very important with dual actors playing the same role to have something physical they can identify in both people. "Whether it's the shape of the nose or the shape of the eyes — it's got to be something," James said.Over the course of the first five episodes of "House of the Dragon," Rhaenyra Targaryen goes <a href="https://www.insider.com/house-of-the-dragon-cast-actors-ages-characters-2022-9#alicent-hightower-is-14-years-old-at-the-start-of-house-of-the-dragon-and-milly-alcock-was-21-during-filming-4">from 14 years old to almost 18 years old</a> while Alcock plays the character. Then, in episode six, there's a big time jump and D'Arcy takes over the role. They'll continue to star as now-Queen Rhaenyra in season two. <div type="image" title="Milly Alcock as young Princess Rhaenyra, left; right, Emma D'Arcy as older Rhaenyra." height="900" width="1200" msid="97490988" hostid="261" sizebytes="31480"></div>Alcock was 20 years old when she was cast as the young Rhaenyra.James found her after watching a 2019 Australian series called "Upright," and said Alcock has the same-shaped eyes as D'Arcy and she was the right age for the role."She's very like Emma in the sense that she is a one-off," James said. "She's unique. She's not trained — she's all instinct.""House of the Dragon" writer and showrunner Ryan Condal describes D'Arcy in a similar way in the new official HBO book."I see Emma as a very old soul," Condal said. "They're one of the smartest actors I've ever met or spoken to. A lot of actors, there's one dimension they bring to a role. Then there are these unicorn actors who can convey subtle emotion through minor changes in just the way they breathe, or a glance. Emma had that. Emma is a completely different entity in a really good way.""House of the Dragon: Inside the Creation of a Targaryen Dynasty" is out in bookstores now. Read <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/house-of-the-dragon">Insider's breakdown of why the HBO fantasy series was the best TV show of 2022.</a>

The 'House of the Dragon' casting director used teenage photos of Emma D'Arcy to find the right young Rhaenyra

<ul class="summary-list"><li>George R.R. Martin said he thinks nuclear war seems "more and more feasible."</li><li>"What are we going to do if Putin actually does use nuclear bombs?" Martin asked Stephen Colbert.</li></ul>George R.R. Martin said he wishes he had a real-life dragon to fly to the Kremlin and prevent Russian President Vladimir Putin from using nuclear weapons.Martin made an appearance on Stephen Colbert's "The Late Show" on Tuesday, where Colbert asked Martin why he thought science fiction books published in the last decades seemed to focus so much on the downfall of mankind and dystopian decline. Martin said science fiction reflects people's worries, citing how books covered everything from the threat of nuclear war in the 1950s to the dread of a possible zombie apocalypse."Suddenly nuclear war seems more and more feasible again," he told Colbert. "It's back there. We may have a nuclear war. And we have new pandemic diseases that are wiping us out." "Can we be optimistic about climate change? What are we going to do if Putin actually does use nuclear bombs?" he said."What do we want to do? I wish I had a dragon I could fly to the Kremlin," Martin said, to applause from the audience. <iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QgCxVdsQH_k" frameborder="0"></iframe>Martin's "Game of Thrones" series showed the power of dragons to end dynasties. One character, Daenerys Targaryen, had three dragons. One of her dragons <a href="https://www.insider.com/game-of-thrones-daenerys-bells-reaction-explained-2019-5">decimated the capital city of the fictional continent of Westeros</a>, King's Landing, in the show's last season. Most recently, his work was brought to life in the hit HBO series, <a href="https://www.insider.com/all-targaryen-dragons-house-of-the-dragon-2022-9">"House of the Dragon,"</a>which featured even more dragons — including Aemond Targaryen's massive Vhagar, and Daemon Targaryen's Caraxes, the "Blood Wyrm."

You Searched For "Targaryen dynasty" and got 5 results

GOT spin-off 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms'—set for 100 years after 'House of the Dragon'—begins production

PTI

This is the 'House of the Dragon' you've been waiting for or at least, the beginning of it

Palmer Haasch

'House of the Dragon' cocreator says Aegon's avoidance of the crown was driven by neglect: 'This is the medieval version of the millionaire's prodigal son'

Kim Renfro

The 'House of the Dragon' casting director used teenage photos of Emma D'Arcy to find the right young Rhaenyra

Kim Renfro

George R.R. Martin says he wishes he had a real life dragon so he could fly to the Kremlin as the threat of nuclear war looms large

Cheryl Teh