Which characters are we looking forward to at ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2?

Similar to the character of Rhaenyra, Emily Carey played a young Alicent in the first season. Olivia Cooke takes the helm in the second half and the entirety of the franchise. 

Like Rhaenyra, Alicent is not ready to back down. “Alicent’s at the height of her power,” Cooke says in one of the promotional materials for the show. “She’s dealing with the task she thinks Viserys gave her and feeling quite dazzled and special now that her offspring sits on the throne.”

House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal says if there’s one thing he looks forward to in the new season, it’s Daemon Targaryen. Fans will be able to see a much deeper side of him. “He’s still very much Daemon. But it further excavates Daemon’s haunted past. I’m excited for the fans to see it.”

Condal further explains that it all comes back to the nature of his relationship with Rhaenyra. “Is that as husband and wife? Is it as uncle and niece? Or is it as both heirs to the throne? Maybe it can be all three of those things.” 

In the Defend Your Council show featurette, Matt Smith expounds on his character’s relationship with Rhaenyra. “Me and Rhaenyra, there’s a bloodline to us, isn’t there?" he says. “We’re the thoroughbreds.”

As the late King’s first-born male son, some consider Aegon II to be the rightful heir to the throne rather than the named heir, a woman that is Princess Rhaenyra. His mother, Alicent, puts him on the throne as soon as the King’s death is announced, marking this an act of usurpation for those who have taken oaths to the late King. However, Alicent and the rest of the Greens believe that they are in the right. 

Tom Glynn-Carney, who plays Aegon II, definitely did some research. There is some semblance of justification for his character’s position. “My name is in the lease for the castle,” he says in the Defend Your Council show featurette. 

“Team Black are decent people. We are more of a functioning family. We do things the right way,” says Harry Collett in the Defend Your Council show featurette. 

Season 2 promises a challenge to Collett’s Jacaerys, who is juggling his role as his mother’s heir and the struggles that come with the death of his brother. Despite this, he reasserts the loyalty of the Stark family—and, in consequence, the entire North—to Rhaenyra. They are one of Team Black’s strongest allies.

In one of the promotional interviews for the show, Matt Smith asks Fabien Frankel: If he were to give his character advice, what would it be? “Change your armour, and take it easy,” he says. “You don’t have to kill anyone,” they jest. 

Ser Criston Cole, who once was Rhaenyra’s personal guard, now stands loyal to the Greens, particularly Alicent. He is known as the Kingmaker, having been the one to crown King Aegon II Targaryen. Fans are excited to see him on the warfront—teased in videos with him battling (or rather, running from) dragons. 

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Married to Lord Corlys Velaryon, leader of the wealthiest house and most powerful fleet in the realm, Princess Rhaenys Targaryen is a powerful ally. She is the cousin of the late King Viserys and Prince Daemon and the grandmother of Rhaenyra and Daemon’s offspring to her late son and daughter Leanor and Laena, respectively. It is only natural that House Velaryon sides with the Blacks. 

Despite her age, she is one of the best dragon riders in the series and plays an active role in the battles. One of her most anticipated fights will be against her nephews, Prince Aegon and Prince Aemond, popularly known as the ‘Battle at Rook’s Rest’.

The Green faction's most significant weapons under its belt are perhaps Prince Aemond and his dragon, Vhagar, previously ridden by Lady Laena Velaryon. He is considered one of the best fighters in the realm, and his dragon is the largest in the show’s current universe—a “Targaryen birthright” he got to receive during one of the first season’s most memorable scenes: losing his eye and the resulting discussion between the Blacks and Greens afterwards. 

This season, Ewan Mitchell promises a fresher Aemond. He reveals that he hasn’t watched Game of Thrones and still won’t. “I have a confession to make. I’ve never seen it, and I didn’t want to watch it and influence my performance,” he says.

In the show’s Fire Hot Takes, Steve Toussaint reveals that Rhaenyra deserves to be queen, as she’s doing everything she can to avoid warfare. “I think that one thing alone would make her a good queen because she cares about her subjects,” he explains.

“For Corlys, he’s still coming to terms with the grief of losing his son, his brother, his daughter, and his heir, his grandson,” Toussaint says in an interview. “So, he is trying to deal with that, plus hold on to the one thing he holds most of his relationship with his wife, so that’s kind of where he is. He’s in a very weakened and emotional state.”

Father of Queen Alicent and hand of the king to Jaehaerys, Viserys, and now his grandson Aegon II, Ser Otto Hightower is one of the show’s most powerful—and scheming—characters. Prince Daemon once described him as “a second son who stands to inherit nothing he doesn’t seize for himself.” 

Otto is ambitious and, by the time of Viserys’s death, has been scheming to put Aegon II on the throne for years, which he successfully does through Alicent—which he also schemed to marry off to the late King after the death of Queen Aemma, mother of Rhaenyra. As one of the brains behind the Green’s rise to power, we expect how he’ll work things out this coming season.

As one of Prince Daemon’s daughters, it is only fitting that Baela Targaryen inherits his father’s bravery and skill. In the show’s teasers, she is also seen wielding his father’s Dark Sister, anticipating a fight scene from her. She is also seen riding her dragon, Moondancer, and chasing Ser Criston Cole in a field. 

“Team Black is the most fun. We get on the most,” she says in the Defend Your Council show featurette. “[The Greens] all hate each other.”

Sister-wife to Aegon II, Helaena bores the young King and his heirs—Jaehaerys, Jaehaera, and Maelor—to further solidify the Green’s line of succession. Wonderfully portrayed by Phia Saban, Helaena is the rider of Dreamfyre and a dreamer gifted with prophetic visions.

Viewers will see a different side of her in season two, particularly during and after the most anticipated and harrowing Blood and Cheese scene. How she handles the butcher and ratcatcher with her children would have audiences at a standstill. “I tried to not put too much pressure on myself,” she says in an interview during the premiere. 

“Team Black loves each other way more,” Phoebe Cambell says in the Defend Your Council show featurette. “I think we have a family base that is incredible.” As Team Green took hold of King’s Landing, Team Black presided in Dragonstone. Some fans find this fitting, for King’s Landing may be the capital, but Dragonstone is the true home of the Targaryens.

In season two, expect a more active and visible Rhaena Targaryen as she stands beside her sister, Baela, and her father, Daemon.

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The Umbrella Academy’s final season to premiere on August 8