#HOTD casting

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

— father and son: young rhys ifans vs freddie fox.

THE CASTING OF 'HOUSE OF THE DRAGON' IS ALWAYS SO CRAZY AND PERFECT.

[ride-thedragon]

I see Laena casting discourse again. They really did age her up unnecessarily, and I do think it was to communicate how bad the whole picking child bride thing is while making her a suitable (young) match for Daemon. I genuinely remember the sheer disbelief that she was teen Laena.

Milly and Emily are Rhaenyra and Alicent from ages 14 to 20, respectively, somewhere in that timeline they become Emma and Olivia's versions of the characters. Nova is Laena from 12 to about 15, and then from 16 to 20-ish, she's played by Savannah, who then passes over to Nanna until 26, Laena is at best 26 when she dies. It's a less similar time frame for Laenor who , as much as I love young Laenor, should've been played by the same (teen) actor as he and Rhaenyra are the same age.

Back to Laena, I think they should've just casted younger and kept 1 Laena for youth and one Laena for adulthood like the other girls. Yes, she's younger but not young enough to need that much of a difference between episodes 1 and 5. I'm not promoting the sick comedy of Daemon and Youngest Laena, but that's the general point. You can't want to show the world we're in with Viserys and Rhaenys and then falter when it's Daemon's turn. Those actresses do not have a 4 year age gap. Even casting an older actress in both parts but changing their styling would make sense.

I'm not upset because I adore every Laena actor. They looked and found the prettiest actors they could, and they DIDN'T DISAPPOINT, but it was biased storytelling.

I think this was a case where hiring a young actress and allowing costumes and acting to tell a story would've worked beautifully.

Another way it would've worked was seeing as production and filming takes so long, hiring a young actress and filming baby laena at the start and teen Laena at the end of filming.

Are there no black 14/15/16 year old actors to hire?

I also don't like the fact that they cast Laena with much older actors when they are done with that initial point.

Nova is 14 now, and Savannah is 28. Nanna is 37.

They were 10/11, 25/26, and 34/35, respectively, while filming.

Respectfully that's insane.

They are playing 12, 16, and 26.

It's a clear oversight and is weird because yet again, they didn't consider the implication of a 16 year old black girl going after a 30+ year old prince. Or the idea of going from casting Laena with an actress younger than her age to two actresses a decade apart from her canon age.

Anyways: Casting 101

When 2 actors represent the spectrum of ages, your character is at (10 to 26), maybe cast between them for a teen version.

I don't like the inconsistent casting. I genuinely think the only reason I don't hate it more is because of the fact that the inconsistent costumes piss me off more.

No hate to the actresses again. This is about character continuity and not at all a reflection of their performances. They are our Laena's and the reasons we wish we got more of the character.

[lavenderinoz]

Wonderful news. The talented Abigail Thorn will be appearing in House of The Dragon season 2 as Admiral Sharako Lohar.

In the book Fire and Blood, Admiral Lohar commanded a Triarchy fleet of 90 Myrish, Lysene and Tyroshi warships at the Battle of Gullet.

[mejcinta]

About those Casting Rumors.

There's a rumor going around that hotd could be reshooting Blood and Cheese, which, although it is highly unlikely (GRRM has already watched the first 2 episodes), is not entirely impossible.

The descriptions in this casting call seem to point to Targaryen children, with emphasis on VERY blonde/white hair.

The ages of the children should be around Maelor, Jaehaera and Jaehaerys' ages... although this could apply to white haired Targaryen bastards as well, for all I know.

Watford, is where Leavesden Studios is located, going by this map that shows Watford Rd in Watford!!!

My only doubt surrounding this piece of quite intriguing news is that filming will take place in March, while officially it's been stated reshoots for hotd season 2 are scheduled for the entire month of February.

Maybe the scene being filmed, supposing this casting call is indeed related to Hotd, needs more time and preparation, and the extension is to ensure they find perfect casting for the children? Who knows?

I really don't know what's going on. Let's just wait and see what reports we'll hear next couple of days.

Reshoots are pretty normal for the most part. Hotd season 1 did reshoots few months to release as well.

I'm more curious about what has been changed in the story to prompt the reshoots.

@ceoofhelaegon @witheredoffherwitch @snowblack-charcoalwhite @bohemian-nights @blackcat419 @thephantomcasebook wake up! 🙃

[horizon-verizon]

Hi i just want to ask something, recently i saw a lot of people calling Fabien Frankel brown, as someone who is brown i was so confused with this, he doesnt look brown to me? He look like he had fair skin maybe not pale like other actor And he still look european in general (italians or spanish) but brown like middleeastern, south asian, or southeast asian? I dont think so, maybe i m wrong i didnt do any research on him so im sorry. even his name sound european to me, this giving me Antonio Banderas all over again american love to make him "brown" in their movies but when you look at all of his pictures he actually had fair skin just like the king of spain or that tiktok influencer who just found out that majority people in spain is "white" after watching Semana Santa festival, hollywood did great job brainwashing people into thinking some European brown now, when people dislike his character now people calling them racist even though you dont talk about his skin color

Apparently, Fabien's paternal grandmother was born from Baghdad Iraqi and Mumbai Indian Jewish people. Paternal grandfather had Polish Jewish ancestry. So some people say Fabien is PoC bc of all this, which I say is weird and wrong. Emilia Clarke has PoC grandmother I think, should she be considered PoC, as well? And that actor who plays Sokka in the new Avatar Netflix series, he's claimed he's indigenous bc of some claim to indigenous ancestors...when he's not even recognized by those indigenous people. Plenty of people have PoC/Black ancestry but are racially white anyway, just look at many people from South America, the Caribbean, etc.

So yeah, ignore those calling you racist for hating Criston Cole. Dornish people are not PoCs, Crisotn Cole was never Dornish either in show nor the original story (yes, Alicent saying so still doesn't matter), AND Fabien is not a PoC himself. He just has dark eyes and dark hair.

[elleinmotion]

“She sees much and more, my Alys.”

(I am so excited to see Gayle’s work within this role.)

📸 credit Christian Högstedt

[lemonhemlock]

Targs crying Freddie got cast as a Hightower reminds me that they were also crying Tom should have been cast for a better Targaryen role and he is wasted as Aegon. They can't let team green have anything.

go easy on them, they must be going through their terrible twos

[cambion-companion]

I know I’m going to sound like an asshole, but that picture you posted of Gayle is actually one of the better ones that I’ve seen 😬 I feel so bad because I know she’s already going to get heat for being Alys but this isn’t at all the look I was hoping for.

I know, and it's alright to not be excited by a casting choice! I feel bad for her already though because people are viscious even when the casting is well done.

Especially in this fandom.

I guess this is a good time to remind everyone that you may not like a character but the actor is just paying rent lol

Be kind.

[bohemian-nights]

Looks like nettles maybe casted right!

Yep👍🏽 She is casted correctly if that’s her, which fingers crossed it is 🤞🏽

[florisbaratheons]

I doubt Fionn is Cregan, but how is he "a couple of years older" when he is 26 in a couple of months and Harry is 19?

I thought I wrote "handful", not couple, lmao. I will go back and fix that. They're five years apart in age, which is how many years apart Cregan and Jace were.

Fionn is a part of the cast, he's been listed as being a part of it for a long time, but the rumors that have been going around lately have nailed him down as Cregan. Leo Suter is not going to be Cregan, he's too old and looks it too. He's most likely going to be Hugh Hammer. The dragonseeds are coming.

I still think Fionn might be Daeron tho. He's got the whole sleek Targaryen look, he just needs the wig. Hugo Papiernik is the one listed as Daeron, and he looks much more burly and mountain man-esque like Cregan is described.

We shall see!

[hotdaemondtargaryen]

EWAN MITCHELL PHOTOGRAPHED AND INTERVIEWED FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE.

ABOUT BEING RECOGNIZED

Like most people, Ewan Mitchell is accustomed to anonymity.

So during a recent trip to Manhattan, he was surprised by what a hotel doorman asked when he arrived: “You haven’t packed your eye patch?”

The actor is still getting used to strangers making the connection in public.

“I wouldn’t think people would recognize me, but they do.”

“I think it’s because of my strong chin.”

“When I’m dressed up as Aemond and catch myself in the mirror, he scares even me a little bit.”

When he’s not in character, Mitchell is soft-spoken and occasionally flashes a boyish grin, though he retains much of Aemond’s seriousness and quiet intensity.

He is also very private: He stays off social media and in the past has shied away from sharing much with the public.

“Once you lose the mystery, you can’t really get it back.”

HE KNOWS THAT AEMOND'S KEY ROLE IN S2 MEANS HE MUST ALSO EMBRACE THE SPOTLIGHT:

“There is a point where you have to go, now’s the time to pull back the curtain.”

Like Aemond, Mitchell is a second son.

He grew up in Derby, an industrial town in the middle of England, and his parents expected him to follow his older brother’s footsteps and work at Rolls-Royce (the aerospace and industrial technology company, not the carmaker).

HIS INSPIRATIONS AND BECOME AN ACTOR

Inspired by films like “Citizen Kane” and “Taxi Driver,” Mitchell knew early on he wanted to become an actor.

When he was 13, his teacher asked each student in his class what they wanted to do when they grew up.

“Then it came to me, and I said, ‘I’m going to be an actor,’ and everyone laughed at me.”

His family could not afford tuition for drama school, so Mitchell attended a two-year vocational school, where he studied design and technology while working part-time at a restaurant and in customer service at a local soccer club.

Midway through the program, at 17, he was accepted into the Nottingham Television Workshop, a drama group that trains young people in acting.

Through the Workshop, Mitchell landed a leading role in a 2015 short film called “Fire,” about a young man who leaks fire from his hands.

Once the short was released, Mitchell downloaded it onto a dozen CDs, took the train to London and stopped by the offices of every agent he could find, handing them each a copy.

The one person who called back continues to represent Mitchell.

“By hook or by crook, I wanted to make sure that I was going to be in this business.”

ABOUT BEING CASTED AS AEMOND TARGARYEN

Aemond’s growing prominence in the show requires Mitchell to embrace the spotlight as well.

“There is a point where you have to go, now’s the time to pull back the curtain.”

But being cast as Aemond in “House of the Dragon” has been his biggest professional turning point by far.

“Since landing him, I feel like I’m able to now steer the course of my career.”

Mitchell had been rewatching the classic Hollywood adventure film “The Vikings” (1958) and musing about how he wanted to play a morally dark character similar to the one played by Kirk Douglas when he received an email inviting him to submit a taped audition for Aemond.

When he eventually auditioned in person, he left a lasting impression on Ryan Condal, the showrunner for “House of the Dragon.”

“When Ewan came into the room, he just had this presence to him that I can best describe as unsettling,” Condal said.

“It was kind of quietly terrifying the way he performed it, and it was totally different than everybody else. And then he thanked us very politely and left the room.”

Condal recalls asking Kate Rhodes James, the casting director, “Is he always like that?”

She replied, “Oh no, he’s just a very intense northern boy.”

To prepare for his role, Mitchell did not watch “Game of Thrones.” Instead, he read portions of “Fire & Blood,” the book by George R.R.

Martin that inspired the show, and studied the performances of Michael Fassbender in “Prometheus” and Peter O’Toole in “Lawrence of Arabia,” each playing a figure who wields power for his own ends.

ABOUT MATT SMITH AND DAEMON TARGARYEN

On his first day on set, Mitchell consulted with Condal and decided that he would avoid interacting with Matt Smith, who plays Aemond’s similarly menacing uncle and rival, Daemon, in order to heighten the tension between the two characters.

Mitchell had grown up admiring Smith’s performance in “Doctor Who.”

But on set Mitchell avoided any eye contact with him, keeping his distance until the climactic scene near the end of the first season when Aemond and Daemon finally face off.

“There’s this addictive kind of quality when you’re in the shoes of a character.”

“When you lose yourself for a moment, it’s almost like a dream.”

ABOUT HIS HOME AND HIS DOGS

When he isn’t acting, Mitchell still lives at his family home in Derby and spends time with his dogs, three whippets named Eva, Bella and Bonnie.

“Now that I’m on it.”

“I’ve just got to stay on the dragon.”

[lavenderinoz]

Freddie Fox has been casted as Gwayne Hightower in Season 2 of House of The Dragon: source

I would have fancasted him as Daeron Targaryen.

[mejcinta]

Look at him. He's kind of giving Daeron energy, idk. I'm desperate at this point. 😭😭

[horizon-verizon]

🔗LINK to TheWrap Article/Interview with Ryan Condal on Why the Velaryons are Black in HotD

Excerpt:

“To me, I mean, I don’t even really think about it anymore. There are so many Valerians in the show, having the Velaryon family, having the Sea Snake’s family, look different than the Targaryens is actually really helpful in the casting and in differentiating people on screen and remembering who’s from what house and maybe making it even clearer that Rhaenyra has children of questionable parentage,” he continued. “I think there are a lot of visual benefits that come along with it, and because Corlys has such a rich and diverse family line himself, just simply making that one turn on him to cast Steve Toussaint, his entire family then becomes a diverse cast and it’s a really interesting way to populate the show with a bunch of different faces that you may or may not have seen in another high fantasy show or in the original series.”

[peachysunrize]

Glytchell for a new interview Know Thy Slang

[lemonhemlock]

Targ stans are indeed ridiculous when they complain about hot actors being cast as team green (TGC, Freddie and others) but the thing is no showrunners, casting directors, etc. are going to put aside a good actor for a possible future role in a future hypothetical Targ related show that may very well not happen, surely the actors themselves wouldn't agree with this view either. Like, if they're going to adapt the Blackfyre rebellions or the conquest, I'm sure they'll still manage to find good looking and competent actors whenever that's going to happen.

Very true. There's certainly not a dearth of talented, good looking actors available for future shows but a future job opportunity is not the same as an actual, palpable job opening that you apply for and get (along with a paycheck). I'm sure Freddie is happy to be Gwayne Hightower now, rather than maybe, potentially, but also maybe not, but also who knows, Daeron II in a nebulous future.