If there’s one thing you want from a Game Of Thrones prequel series called House Of The Dragon, it’s a lot of those scaled, swooping, fire-breathing titular monsters. Dragons were almost mythical in Thrones, as Daenerys Targaryen brought her three – Drogon, Rhaegal, and Viserion – to life long after the remarkable beasts were believed to be extinct. The dragon action made for some of the most memorable and exciting moments of the entire series (“Dracarys!”) and thus learned that the new spin-off show has a total of 17 fire breathers flying around, nine of whom we’ll meet in season one (confirmed by co-runner Miguel Sapochnik), is music to our ears.
The biggest task for Sapochnik and his team when it comes to these hot-tempered creatures? Find out what they look like. “I have a book with hundreds of [concept] designs,” says Sapochnik. “The first thing you want is not to do Drogon. So I came up with a whole theory of how there are three different types of dragons based on their different skulls. We came up with all sorts of things. But in the end we ended up back with Drogon,” he laughs. “There’s something about Drogon. It’s like the Millennium Falcon. Something hit.” While the beasts ended up looking fairly familiar, they’re definitely not all the same. “Each new dragon has its own personality. That’s what our last part of the animation is all about now – we’re giving each of the dragons personal traits,” explains Sapochnik. “One of them has one [bad] Leg. Another is a lot more like an eagle because she’s sort of neurotic. And another one’s like a grumpy old granny.” Not the kind with a cheeky bag of Werther’s Originals in their purse, we guess.
For the Targaryens, as we saw with Emilia Clarke’s Daenerys in Game Of Thrones, the bond they share with their dragons is incredibly important and intuitive. “There’s a very symbiotic connection between the dragon rider and the dragon,” explains Matt Smith, who plays Daemon. “You have to master it from an early age, and taming it is a death-defying experience. For lack of a better analogy, it’s a bit like Avatar.” For the cast of House Of The Dragon, connecting with their dragons’ mechanical proxy was a little more fun. “We had an animatronic buck controlled by a device that allows the director to plan any flight path,” recalls Emma D’Arcy, who plays Rhaenyra. “Honestly, after spending my first day under my belt, my realization was that every member of the production should have a right to try. You should allocate time slots. The best I had to do was wipe the grin off my face because I can’t stress enough how exciting it is.” Who’s up for an interactive House Of The Dragon experience? The queue starts here…
Read Empire’s full House of the Dragon feature in the upcoming issue on sale Thursday 4th August and available to pre-order online here. House Of The Dragon will air on Sky Atlantic/NOW from August 22nd.