Our Westeros royals Emma DArcy and Olivia Cooke are back to get the next battle off and running.
When queens war, dragons weep.
“The dragon’s crying!”
Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
As written byA Song of Ice and FireauthorGeorge R.R.
People will die, dragons will perish, and Westeros will never be the same.
You know whos not crying, though?
Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
In her defense, she shares a silent joke with D’Arcy.
It’s in my head the whole time," Cooke says later.
“I was like, ‘This is torture.
Emma D’Arcy for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
We physically cannot do this.'”
Which is funny considering she doesn’t TikTok herself: “I refuse to do it.
Rachell Smith
Cooke seems to be referring to a specific experience she and D’Arcy had in 2022.
Emma D’Arcy for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
“We were put into this room and we were just so jet-lagged,” Cooke remembers.
Nowadays, the actors appreciate all that response to a seemingly innocuous moment.
It’s that instantaneous connection that still givesHouse of the Dragonits fire.
Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) and Cregan Stark (Tom Taylor) walk the Wall in ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2.Ollie Upton/HBO
“One of chosen moderation and one of fire and volatility,” they say.
In season 1, for reasons of her position, she was constantly moderating her desire.
This season really investigates rage and maybe in particular a woman’s rage.”
Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull, Steve Toussaint as Corlys Velaryon in ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2.Ollie Upton/HBO
The two sides couldn’t be more divided.
“Rhaenyra is a person devastated.
She’s rigid with grief,” they say.
Rhaenyra Targaryen watches over her younger children at Dragonstone in ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2.Theo Whitman/HBO
“Grief can be a really dislocating force.
Maintaining her throne becomes a sentimental matter.
“To wear his crown is to keep him alive in some way,” D’Arcy continues.
Olivia Cooke for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
“So the political desire becomes a personal one.
For me, that’s when the show really starts to live.”
Hess seeks to temper what fans may be forecasting for that storyline in the HBO adaptation.
Tom Glynn-Carney as Aegon II Targaryen in ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2.Ollie Upton/HBO
“Expect very little,” she says of Sara Snow.
We just don’t have the eyes to really be everywhere at the same time.”
Ollie Upton/HBO
Harrenhal is a much more prominent fixture.
Olivia Cooke’s Alicent Hightower, Ewan Mitchell’s Aemond Targaryen in ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2.Theo Whitman/HBO
“There’s a haunted goat!”
So, kind of like Black Phillip from Robert Eggers’ 2015 horror hitThe Witch?
“I mean, a little bit,” she says.
Olivia Cooke for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
“We definitely were thinking of it as [The Shining’s] Overlook Hotel.
It’s super fun in that it’s atmospheric.”
Hess also mentions Alys Rivers, a new character this season played by Gayle Rankin (GLOW).
Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
All this is meant to bear down on Daemon in theMacbeth-ian sense when he arrives at Harrenhal.
“He can’t sleep.
There’s weird shit going on.
‘House of the Dragon’ co-creator Ryan Condal on set of season 2.Ollie Upton/HBO
“Yes, that is certainly a new dynamic,” he says of the incoming Alyn and Addam.
As Condal puts it, “The thing about medieval times is that wars happen very slowly.
You have to raise armies.”
Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke for Entertainment Weekly’s ‘House of the Dragon’ season 2 cover shoot.Rachell Smith
But D’Arcy speaks of their so-dubbed Black Queen as being active in her own right behind the scenes.
It’s really interesting to think about because women do disappear from historical narratives.”
She’s the mother of the current king and, more importantly, has his ear.
And yet, Hess notes, “The story of this season is that they change places.”
“Who can she trust?
There’s no one around her,” Cooke elaborates.
“Everyone, it seems, has been spying on her.
It’s this sense of peak paranoia within her own home.
That had to really permeate throughout my performance.
All of a sudden she’s of no use to anyone.
Who is she if she can’t be the person to implement wisdom?”
All of a sudden I’m not important.
I’m not a player," Cooke says of Alicent.
“In a very giddy way, that’s really novel and exciting.”
It also allows for other, more supporting players to come into focus.
That was one of Condals goals in season 2 giving more focus to the children of Rhaenyra and Alicent.
“It’s a gift to play a character like Aegon.
He’s absolute chaos,” Glynn-Carney says.
“He’s unpredictable.
He’s a living, walking nightmare.
So it’s great fun.”
And we see him make a run at combat that," he says.
“You’re either with him or you’re against him.”
But first, he has to break some news to his family that he killed his nephew.
“Yeah…” Mitchell begins.
“Aemond is faced with a choice.
I passed Ewan in the car park.
We sort of nodded to each other.
But the Hightower family continues to grow as they recruit more allies against the Blacks.
“Alicent and Gwayne have been pretty much estranged their whole lives,” she says.
“So trying to find this familial sibling bond between strangers was really interesting.”
Two words: “Blood” and “Cheese.”
To mention those words to the cast is to cross their NDAs.
“I’d just say, it isGame of Thrones, expect the worst.
Expect the very worst possible, and then double it.
I dunno what else to say without heavily spoiling it, but it is heinous.”
“But, yeah, that one’s pretty horrific.
We’ll see what people make of what’s to come.”
If season 1 was their baptism by fire, i.e.
“There’s a lot to be said for knowing the show you’re in,” D’Arcy muses.
That’s not the case in season 2, which nixes big time jumps.
They’re both in it for the long haul.
Do a bit of work, a few weeks off, it’s perfect,” D’Arcy says.
“It was so exhausting, but also nice.”
I was a husk.
I could not form a sentence.
I was so tired.
It is a behemoth."
Season 2 proved to be a colossal endeavor for its creator as well.
“It was rough.
“We were prepared for it,” Condal says.
“The writing really was done.
The writing isalwaysdone on the show because it has to be.
You cannot prep a show that is this complex [otherwise].”
Hess also praises Condal for leading the show through this tumultuous time.
“He picked up the tone of the show and he really delivered for us,” she says.
What were they discussing exactly?
“Nice try, but no,” she demures.
Condal confirms they are deep into writing a third season in the event that HBO decides they want it.
Now that he’s deep into the adaptation, the show’s endgame comes more and more into focus.
The world ofGame of Thronesmarches on, as well.
With Martin’s collection of novellas as inspiration, Peter Claffey will star as Ser Duncan the Tall a.k.a.
It’s very early days, but we shall see.”
In the meantime, he still has a war to plan.
Back at London’s Blue Sky Studios, Cooke stares down D’Arcy in their literal game of chess.
