“House of the Dragon” Season 2 Trailer Finds House Targaryen Careening Toward a Civil War

May 14, 2024

The House of the Dragon season 2 trailer has arrived, and boy, things are getting ugly in House Targaryen.

Season 2 will find Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and her father, Ser Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), dealing with the aftermath of the death of King Viserys (Paddy Considine). Season 1 chronicled the end of the peaceful King’s rule as his health deteriorated and his house was rife with rumor, intrigue, and murder. Queen Alicent and Ser Otto believe they are the two people who know how to steer the realm back towards a peaceful rule, lorded over by Alicent’s son, King Aegon. Yet Ser Otto is well aware that in order to have peace again, they will first likely need to go to war.

That war will be with Queen Alicent’s childhood friend, Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy), the daughter of the late King Viserys and the person he chose to succeed him. But Rhaenyra, being a woman, was blocked from her ascension and ultimately made an alliance (in bed and her quest for the Iron Throne) with the dangerous Prince Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith)—her uncle, by the by, this being Westeros after all. They also bring to bear the increasingly dangerous Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell) and have their own alliances to deploy.

Season 2 promises more bloodshed as House Targaryen careens toward an all-out civil war. It also promises more dragons—showrunner Ryan Condal told us how much more dragon-centric season 2 would be.

“We’ll definitely introduce more of them as we go along. I think that’s part of the fun of doing the show. They are characters, and in season two, they’re needed for their most famous purpose, which is to decimate and cause death and destruction.”

The returning cast for season 2 also includes Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Tom Glynn-Carney, Sonoya Mizuno, Harry Collett, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Phia Saban, Jefferson Hall and Matthew Needham. Dragon newcomers are Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull, Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers, Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower, and Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong.

Check out the trailer below. House of the Dragon season 2 returns to HBO on June 16: