The showrunner of HBO’s Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon has revealed we may have not seen the last of teenage Rhaneyra and Queen Alicent.
Unlike its flagship series, House of the Dragon covers time much quicker. While Game of Thrones built its success by slowly watching the characters shift and change in detail, the new series regularly jolts forward, showing the audience how the events of the previous episode have gone on to affect their lives.
The latest episode ‘The Princess and the Queen’ saw the series jump in time once more. This time, it was ten years. To best emphasise this, the lead characters of Rhaenyra and Queen Alicent who were teenagers in the first five episodes, were recast.
Rhaenyra is now played by Emma D’Arcy for the rest of the series, while Alicent is played by Olivia Cooke.
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With this decision, the assumption was that we would no longer see the younger characters played by Milly Alcock and Emily Carey.
However, in a recent interview with Variety, showrunner Ryan Condal has suggested it may not be the last for Alcock and Carey.
“I mean, look, I don’t know,” said Condal. “[the younger characters] are not part of the story we’re telling, yet. That’s not a thing we’re doing right now…There are things that we haven’t fully sorted out. I’m not closing the door on anything.”
Though it seems the actors may not be returning to the series for the foreseeable future, it does seem that a flashback to their teenage years may happen in season’s down the line.
The two actors have certainly become favourites among fans and it would seem like a missed opportunity not to utilise their obvious talent and nail-biting chemistry.
House of the Dragon is well on the way to becoming as successful as its predecessor and we’re ensuring viewers can stay on top of the twists and turns with episode recaps and a healthy dose of memes.
