Why Did House of the Dragon Change Actors?

Sunday's new episode of the Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, titled "The Princess and the Queen," jumped 10 years into the future and replaced two of its stars. Emma D'Arcy replaced Milly Alcock as Princess Rhaenrya Targaryen and Olivia Cooke took over the role of Queen Alicent Hightower from Emily Carey. Why did the cast change? The short answer is that it happened to accommodate the time jump, but that wasn't always the plan. Showrunner Ryan Condal explained to The Hollywood Reporter that the original plan was to begin House of the Dragon after the death of King Viserys, meaning Rhaenyra and Alicent would already be adults. However, this left out a lot of the backstory, too much of it necessary to understand the series and too complex to backfill as the series continued. This led to Ryan Condal reworking the series into the decades-spaning story playing out in the show's first season.

"I'm excited about the pace and the structure of the story that we're telling in the first season," Condal said. "It's very complex. It happens over a long period of time because children need to get married off and then grow up themselves and then have children of their own who grow up in order to tell the story of this generational war that is fought. HBO gave [showrunner Miguel Sapochnik] the creative latitude to tell this incredibly complex story in a really patient and character-driven way that sets up a first season so that it launches you into one of the most famous and bloody conflicts in the history of Westeros — if not the most."

"It's what makes this premium HBO content versus the thing we would have been forced to make at a different outlet," he continued. "Most other places would not have had the patience and boldness to allow us to tell the story we're telling. But this is how you tell this story correctly. We're telling a story of a generational war. We set everything up so by the time that first sword stroke falls, you understand all the players — where they are and why they are. All the history is there instead of being told to you in exposition. This way you get to see it all happen." 

Elsewhere, Condal commented on the possibility of seeing Alcock and Carey return in future episodes of the series, which is already renewed for a second season with Condal as sole showrunner. "I mean, look, I don't know," Condal told Variety. He added that the younger actors "are not a part of the story that we're telling, yet. That's not a thing that we're doing right now."

House of the Dragon airs new episodes on Sundays on HBO.