‘House of the Dragon’: The Actors Who Played the Older and Younger Versions of Rhaenerya and Alicent Never Interacted on Set
Based on George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, which chronicles the Targaryen dynasty, House of the Dragon is the prequel to Game of Thrones. The series chronicles the Targaryens’ rule over Westeros some 100 years into their 300-year rule.
Thus far in this season, King Viserys I Targaryen (Paddy Considine) named his eldest daughter, Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock as a teen, Emma D’Arcy as an adult) as his heir, going against the patriarchal structure of the time. He also married her best friend, Alicent (Emily Carey and later Olivia Cooke), setting off a chain of events that will change history forever.
‘House of the Dragon’ had some major cast changes in the middle of Season 1
Since the series spans several decades, creator/co-showrunner Ryan Condal made the choice to use different actors over different periods of time on the show. Milly Alcock handed off the role of Rhaenyra to Emma D’Arcy, and Emily Carey was replaced as Alicent by Olivia Cooke.
He thought it was the right thing to age the actors up, considering the time jumps that would remain central to this story.
The actors who played the older and younger versions of Rhaenerya and Alicent never interacted.
With so many moving parts, Alcock and D’Arcy, nor Carey and Cooke ever overlapped or interacted on set. Their respective performances as Rhaenerya and Alicent were meant to stand on their own.
“We didn’t feel that we could encroach on their performance or their methods cause they in their own right are playing completely separate characters to who you meet 10 years down the road,” D’Arcy told Shadow and Act. “There’s a beautiful through line between the two versions.”
Cooke explained that watching Carey as Aleincent was like watching old family videos. “We finally saw the first episode, and it felt a bit like watching Targaryen home video and seeing something of yourself as a child,” she said. “On the one hand, you feel that person to be familiar and have deep empathy for them in their position, but sometimes you feel distinctly different and separate. Fortunately, it functions really well.”
‘House of the Dragon’ will chronicle the entire Targaryen Civil War
In episode 108, “The Lord of the Tides,” King Viserys finally dies. Though the king tried to force his family to make peace, his final remarks to Alicent, whom he thought was Rhaenerya, sent her into a frenzy, giving her the motivation she need to try and usurp her former friend/ step-daughter and queen and put her tyrannical son Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) on the throne.
Fans who know the Targaryen family’ odyssey know how it all ends. However, this series will chronicle the downfall. “Here’s the story you’ve always heard about,” creator/co-showrunner Ryan Condal told Shadow and Act. “The Targaryens, at the height of their power with 17 dragons and great wealth and power and influence. They’re unchallengeable. This is that time. So I think it’s a fascinating place to drop in because they’ve just started to turn and decline, but they don’t realize that until it’s too late.”
