Halfway through the first season of House of the Dragon, HBO’s Game of Thrones prequel series recast two of its most important characters. The actresses that played both Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower were replaced in the sixth episode of the series, which began with a 10-year time jump, bringing the characters firmly into adulthood. While that was certainly the biggest time jump of the season, House of the Dragon‘s eighth episode introduces yet another leap into the future, with some other characters getting new actors in order to show the passing time.
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The preview for Sunday’s episode, “The Lord of the Tides,” showed older versions of young characters like Aemond Targaryen. Given how young the characters have been, any amount of time jump likely called for them to be recast. However, the opening scene of “The Lord of the Tides” establishes and even bigger jump than many expected.
The episode begins with Rhaenys Velaryon talking about her husband, Corlys Velaryon, who we knew suffered a terrible injury while battling in the Stepstones. She mentions that she hasn’t seen him in six years. If you recall, the characters were together in the seventh episode of the series, so that means at least six years have passed between episodes, though it could always be a little more.
That isn’t as substantial as the 10-year jump a couple of episodes ago, but it’s still a significant amount of time. Significant enough, in fact, that Rhaenyra’s children and Alicent’s children required new actors to play them.
Last week’s sneak preview showed off the first look at some of these new House of the Dragon castings. The one that likely caught the eye of many fans was Aemond Targaryen, the second son of Alicent and Viserys. Aemond is building up to be one of the villains of the show, and he figures to take on a major role going forward. “The Lord of the Tides” sees the role of Aemond go to actor Ewan Mitchell, who some may recognize from his time on The Last Kingdom.
The role role of Prince Aegon Targaryen is now being played by Tom Glynn-Carney, while Prince Jacaerys Velaryon is played by Harry Collett and Prince Lucerys Velaron is being played by Elliot Grihault. Daemon and Laena’s daughters were also recast going into the eighth episode. The role of Lady Baela Targaryen went to Bethany Antonia and Lady Rhaena Targaryen is being played by Phoebe Campbell.
New episodes of House of the Dragon air on Sunday nights on HBO and HBO Max.
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