‘House of the Dragon’: Ser Criston Cole Has 1 Quality He’ll Never Escape, Fabien Frankel Says
House of the Dragon explores the Targaryan family history. It’s based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, and historical figures characters may have referenced in Game of Thrones. House of the Dragon also introduces Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), who is quickly becoming a fan favorite. Frankel shared one interesting note one of the show’s creators gave him as he began the job.
Frankel was a guest on the House of the Dragon podcast on Sept. 11 to discuss his role. He shared one note he got in the beginning that’s going to define Ser Criston Cole throughout the series. New episodes of House of the Dragon premiere Sundays on HBO Max.
Ser Criston Cole is a thug on ‘House of the Dragon’
Ser Criston Cole is a knight in the kingsguard. However, House of the Dragon Executive Producer and director Miguel Sapochnik gave Frankel a different direction.
“Mig talked a lot about Criston Cole being a thug which I thought was really interesting,” Frankel said on the House of the Dragon podcast. “It’s funny because I never thought about it that way. Mig talked about Criston Cole being a thug, and then learning not to be a thug but there always being a thuggishness in him. I thought that was so interesting because obviously I never thought of him that way in my head.”
A thug on ‘House of the Dragon’ is not a thug in our world
Frankel continued that his confusion came from modern day preconceptions about what a thug is. House of the Dragon takes place in Westeros, which is not only historical but completely fictional. Wrapping his head around what a Westeros thug is helped him play Criston.
“Our vision in western culture of what thugs look like isn’t Criston Cole,” Frankel said. “So it’s very hard to dissociate what you see as a thug in the 21st century or what movies have decided are thugs for you, vs. what the equivalent of a thug would have been in this medieval equivalent of time. So we talked a lot about that and it was just like certain scenes, especially later on in the show where Criston has definitely understood his place in this world more so than he does in the first five episodes of the show.”
Ser Criston Cole will always be an outsider
House of the Dragon also established Ser Criston Cole as an outsider.
“The big thing obviously that was put in is that he’s Dornish,” Frankel said. “It’s basically the first thing that’s said about him in the entirety of the show. He takes off his helmet and Alicent goes, ‘He’s Dornish.’ Very much from the get go, it’s like he’s not like everyone else. He doesn’t look like everyone else so because of that he will always be an outsider. Just based on the color of his skin or the color of his hair, whatever specifically identifies him as Dornish to them.”
So Criston Cole is a thug from Dorge. He’s making nice with Rhaenyra in the kingdom right now, but expect him to always revert back to where he’s from.
