The marketing for House of the Dragon Season 3 is heating up, with HBO dropping a new look that teases, among several other things, perhaps the most anticipated showdown of the entire series. The Game of Thrones prequel will return next month after a two-year break, and (while we’ve heard this one before) will finally fully launch us into the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. The House of the Dragon Season 3 trailer promises a lot of action, with epic battles and dragon set pieces.
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That’s going to be important as the show looks to bounce back from what was a somewhat divisive sophomore outing, with George R.R. Martin himself critical of House of the Dragon‘s book changes. Still, it can’t all be action, as it has to use that to inform its character arcs and drama, something that’s teased by the new poster for Season 3. It features several main characters around the Iron Throne, including Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy), Daemon (Matt Smith), Jacaerys (Harry Collett), Baela (Bethany Antonia), Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell), Corlys (Steve Toussaint), Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Helaena (Phia Saban), Alicent (Olivia Cooke), and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell). Check it out below:
It’s a pretty cool poster in its own right, making good use of the show’s iconography and borrowing from a classic Game of Thrones quote for its tagline, “Win or Die.” It also teases and foreshadows several major events to come. Warning: Contains major SPOILERS for Fire & Blood, the book on which House of the Dragon is based.
House Of The Dragon Season 3’s Poster Teases Aemond Vs. Daemon & More Character Moments
The thing that really jumped out to me about the poster was the positioning of Aemond and Daemon, both of whom get prime spots near the top on either side of Rhaenyra. That makes sense, because they have two of the fiercest dragons, and are both leaders and warriors, meaning they’ll be vital in shaping the outcome of the war. But most notable is that their eyes are locked firmly on one another, with both ready for the fight as their weapons are drawn.
The wait to see Aemond vs. Daemon goes back to the release of Fire & Blood in 2018, in which they have an epic showdown in the book in what’s known as the Battle Above the Gods Eye, where they face one another on the backs of their dragons, Vhagar and Caraxes. The show had them briefly stare down each other in Season 1, which also made it clear that Aemond modelled himself after his uncle; in Season 2, Aemond declared it a challenge he relished, and Alys Rivers told Daemon he is going to die at Harrenhal (which sits on the shore of the Gods Eye lake).
The fight is unlikely to happen in Season 3, as there’s so much to get through first (and HBO will surely want two of its biggest characters around for the final season), so we can expect it to take place in Season 4 instead, which will drop in 2028. Nonetheless, it’s clearly teasing that battle, and we’ll get more pieces in place for it during the third season.
As well as Aemond vs. Daemon, there are some other intriguing hints in the poster. Note that Rhaenyra is not sitting directly on the Iron Throne – in the book, a key character point is the notion of the throne “rejecting” her. Meanwhile, we can see Aegon at the very bottom, striving to climb his way back up. That speaks to his standing after Season 2, where he’s been heavily burned, had to flee the city, and been replaced on the throne (for now) by Aemond.
Helaena is one of the only characters looking away from the throne and the conflict, speaking to her desire to have no part in things; the imagery also fits with her own death in the book, where she takes her own life by jumping from a window onto spikes below. Alicent is seen trying to protect only her, something that was set up by House of the Dragon Season 2’s finale. Jacaerys is reaching for his mother, perhaps symbolizing his own fate at the Battle of the Gullet, Corlys is dressed for battle with a wary eye on Rhaenyra, and Baela and Rhaena stay together, teasing their survival.
That’s a lot to pack into one poster, so it’s a pretty great job and, given the show has a long history of foreshadowing, we can assume much of it is intentional. It’s another tantalizing tease to help tide us over, but the show’s return cannot come soon enough.
House of the Dragon Season 3 premieres on June 21st on HBO and HBO Max.
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Image Courtesy of Marvel Comics
