How House Of The Dragon Season 3 Unveils Totally New Versions Of Houses Targaryen, Velaryon & Hightower Detailed By Cast

Season 2 ended with Emma D'Arcy's Rhaenyra and Olivia Cooke's Alicent negotiating a tentative peace, and yet armies in the Reach, the North, the Westerlands, and the Riverlands continue to prepare for war. The pieces are all set for a battle-heavy season 3 of the George R.R. Martin adaptation, namely the highly anticipated Battle of the Gullet, as the Queens' deal is put to the test.

Alongside D'Arcy and Cooke, the star-studded House of the Dragon season 3 cast includes the returns of Matt Smith, Steve Toussaint, Rhys Ifans, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney, Harry Collett, Freddie Fox, and Abubakar Salim, while also introducing James Norton as Ormund Hightower. Once again showrun by Ryan Condal, the next season marks the penultimate of the Game of Thrones prequel, with season 4 set to conclude the series.

Ahead of the show's premiere, ScreenRant's Liam Crowley interviewed several of the show's stars to discuss House of the Dragon season 3.

When asked about the expansion of the Hightower family tree in the season with Alicent's cousin, Ormund, and her and Viserys' son, Daeron, after having largely not known the latter. Cooke began by explaining that while her character "sent him away to Oldtown at a very young age," there is still very much "a maternal love there," even if they were "estranged."

Cooke went on to acknowledge that, to Alicent's knowledge, "he's safe in Oldtown," not yet knowing that he's actually been taken "under Ormund's wing" and is about to be "kicked out to go to war with his dragon" in House of the Dragon season 3. As such, she teases that should she learn of his current status, "she would be rightly devastated and angry" with her cousin, though with the rest of the turmoil around her, "I don't know how much that can really penetrate her at this point."

Daemon & Aemond Are In Two Very Different Mental Places In Season 3

ScreenRant: For starters, Matt, talking to you, can you talk about how Daemon's visions at the end of season 2 and believing in Aegon's Dream change his relationship with Rhaenyra here in season 3?

Matt Smith: Yeah, I think basically he comes back from his time at Harrenhal with Alys discombobulated, if that makes sense. His atoms are beating at a slightly different frequency, and it's like he's touched the divine. It's like he's touched this sort of dragon, even beyond Caraxes, there's this ethereal thing that's born into his soul and suddenly there's a religious vigor in him and a clarity of thought where, suddenly, his purpose has become completely aligned. And I think, quite simply, he misses his wife, and he wants to be about her, and he wants to serve.

ScreenRant: Tom, coming to you, season 3 is the most angry and vengeful we've ever seen Aegon after fleeing King's Landing. At this point, is it Rhaenyra or Aemond who he wants revenge against the most?

Tom Glynn-Carney: Oh, see, I've been asked that a fair few times and I don't think they're mutually exclusive. I think they can exist in the same level of rage and vengeance that they kind of fluctuate who takes top spot, but I see them on two different — say we've got Bundesliga and Premier League. So they're two great leagues, but the quality of the team is pretty consistent amongst both of them. S---e analogy, ignore that. I feel like he has just a whole ball of rage inside him and whoever he sees first is getting it. But in terms of Aemond, there's something so deeply personal about what he's done, and cowardly about what he's done. And yeah, Aegon really, really wants to get his hands on him, because I think at the time where they leave King's Landing he is afraid of what Aemond might do, because Aegon is in a position that he can't defend himself at this point. But I think he glorifies the moment and really kind of yearns for the moment that he gets his hands on him, and he just wouldn't hold back, I think, if he got hold of his face.

Addam & Ulf's Dragonriding Is Fulfilling Important Emotional Arcs

ScreenRant: Clinton, to start with you, this is a big question. Addam and Seasmoke are now fully bonded heading into House of the Dragon season 3. However, we know that Seasmoke's original rider is secretly alive in Essos. So what do you think it is about Addam that allowed him to claim a bonded dragon already, and how does that affect his perception of his own identity after having to hide being an illegitimate Velaryon all of his life?

Clinton Liberty: So, Addam's whole thing is that he wants to belong to a certain kind of family. And even within the little family he has, which is with Alyn and not so much Corlys, but a little bit of Corlys, he still feels like he's being pushed away, because he doesn't have as much time with Alyn as he wants because Alyn's always away and Corlys is always away fighting wars in the water. So the fact that a dragon of all things chooses him, it's a big indication that he's wanted and there's maybe a little bit more to who he is than he originally thought he was. And from that choosing, because it feels like it's destined, it's all he's ever wanted, is to belong to something. And from that bonding with him and Seasmoke comes everything else, comes the opportunity to have a relationship with Rhaenyra, Corlys, Alyn, and Baela, as we see. So this one moment has changed his perception of himself, and it's ultimately changed everyone's collective perception of Addam. So it's everything he's ever wanted and more.

Kieran Bew: Do we know he's secretly alive? He might have maybe fell down some stairs. He might be dead. I mean, maybe that's why it worked, because, actually, it's just we didn't see it.

Tom Bennett: But also, look at him. How could a dragon not want to bond with this? Look at this face.

Clinton Liberty: Addam was just chilling, trying to fish that day. Just doing his thing and then sees what came. My God.

ScreenRant: Going into season 3, is there a little bit more comfortability here?

Tom Bennett: Yes. There is lots of, you know, you say, "How is this dragon paired up with this loser?" But she loves me and she looks after me. And so I've actually become a very instinctual driver of dragon. Because Silverwing looks after me. But, yeah, you get more comfortable in the saddle. I have to be drunk on set and in the show to fly Silverwing. It's something my agents have insisted upon. I do have to be drunk whilst on the dragon. It is unconventional, but it works. I think you can't deny it doesn't work.

Alyn & Corlys' Relationship Is Maturing In Season 3

ScreenRant: Abu, coming to you, can you tease the evolution of Alyn and Corlys' relationship this season, how it differs from what we saw from them in season 2, specifically because they're put together for the Battle of the Gullet?

Abubakar Salim: Yeah, it matures. I think it really does mature. What happens when you put two people in a room who have almost nothing or in a space where everything is out in the open? We have nothing to hide behind anymore. So you see that evolution, you see that sort of growth with one another. So yeah, I really particularly have a lot of fun in this season exploring Alyn's relationship, not only with the world itself, but particularly with his father and the Velaryon house. So yeah, it's a really, really cool arc that we're going to explore with Alyn on this one.

ScreenRant: Is there anything you would like to explore with Corlys' origin story should a prequel like that come together?

Steve Toussaint: Do you know actually what most interests me about them, and this is terrible because I'm a bit of a romantic, I'm actually more interested in how he won Rhaenys.

Abubakar Salim: I think that's really cool.

Steve Toussaint: Yeah. And then I love the stuff about him going off and having adventures, because I think a lot of him doing that is his spirit that he has to go and see, but also to impress this lady.

Abubakar Salim: Who literally has everything.

Steve Toussaint: Who has everything. Yeah. He has to prove himself. Yeah. So I find that the most interesting aspect of it.

Criston & Gwayne's Dynamic Is Hitting A Strained New Level In Season 3

ScreenRant: Fabien, coming to you, going into Criston's dynamic with Gwayne this season. Criston is the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, but Gwayne is really proving himself to be arguably the more noble and knightly of the two. What would you describe their relationship like here in season 3?

Fabien Frankel: Chalk and cheese, man. They're chalk and cheese. They come from completely different worlds, have completely different opinions. And I think that comes to fruition. There's an entitlement, I think. Criston thinks to Gwayne that, especially in their first encounter, he's very condescending and, famously, Criston Cole isn't one to forget. So I don't know if that's going to bode well for their future, but love Freddie Fox.

Freddie Fox: I think yes, that's a very good read on it. I think he feels more responsible, in a way, because I think he feels like he can keep everyone alive. I think he feels there's something still to live for. And as for the dynamic with Fabs, I mean, I've never worked on a job where I have fallen in love and [built a] friendship with an actor as fast as I have with Fabien. He's become one of my best friends. His energy on set and off is just unbelievably infectious, and I'd call him a dear friend of mine. So I think on the private side, it's been extraordinary. I think the developing relationship as the two characters becomes very strained. And it becomes very strained because they have two completely different views on how this war should go. And that obviously is tested to breaking point.

The Dragonstone Set Is "Like An Alien World" For Some Of The HOTD Cast

ScreenRant: For you as a fan, what's been your favorite storyline to watch that you have no character involvement in?

Freddie Fox: Oh, wow. I mean, I really love the Aegon storyline. I think it's so painful, both literally and emotionally, and one that's so full of longing, regret in mistakes, that you have an inevitability to them. That they're taking these very human people in the wrong direction and then surprising twists of fate. I think it's a really rich storyline that people are going to love in this season, particularly.

Tom Glynn-Carney: Anything to do with what's happening over on Dragonstone. We're so separate to that. So it's lovely to see Matt and Emma and Bethany and Phoebe and Harry and Steve and all our cohorts do their thing because we're never involved with them on set, and we barely ever see them, do we.

Matthew Needham: Do you remember when we went one day, there was a break in filming, we went onto set? Oh yeah, I know. Look around. We just sort of wandered around Dragonstone. It was quite surreal.

Tom Glynn-Carney: Yeah, it was.

Matthew Needham: Yeah, it's like an alien world.

Tom Glynn-Carney: A different show.

The Gullet Will Go Down In The Game Of Thrones Annals Of History

ScreenRant: Obviously, Game of Thrones has had so many big iconic moments over the course of its entire existence between this show, between what we just got in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, between what we got in the first original eight seasons of the show. Is there a particular battle, conversation, culminating moment here in season 3 that you feel like is going to go down in the Game of Thrones annals of history?

Tom Bennett: Well, it's straight off the gate. The Gullet.

Clinton Liberty: The Gullet. I've genuinely never seen anything like it.

Kieran Bew: There were moments in the end of episode 1 and the beginning of 2, the cinematics, I think, are just stunning. It's two directors, Loni and Claire Kilner, and the way that they stitch together. I kind of wish they just played one into the other. There's such beautiful cinematography and those choices they've made, I think, are very emotional, and it's amazing to see that.

• Steve Toussaint teasing Laenor Velaryon's true replacement
• Gayle Rankin teasing that Alys' mysterious backstory will get new answers in season 3
• Matt Smith confirming season 3 will end the biggest Daemon Targaryen complaint from season 2