It has already been confirmed that House of the Dragon will focus on the Targaryens who lived over 200 years before the events in Game of Thrones. But who is the true main character of the series? Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik pointed out to Entertainment Weekly that Rhaenyra Targaryen is the one Targaryen people should keep an eye on.
But what makes Rhaenyra so important? As it turns out, the princess had always been raised to be the heir of her father King Viserys I Targaryen. However, her future is suddenly uncertain when the King gets a male heir who could end up taking the throne.
Emma D’Arcy, who plays the older Rhaenyra in the show, explains how complicated their character is.
“She is someone who’s pushing at the edges of womanhood and has a really decisive, interrogative eye for how gender affects power, affects how one may occupy space, affects even the right to construct one’s life,” D’Arcy said.
“She is a person who feels at odds with the way that she is read by the world… It’s like she has a doppelgänger,” they continued. “The doppelgänger is Rhaenyra born male, who has access to all the things that she craves and feels to be hers.”
Rhaenyra is set to appear throughout House of the Dragon which spans a few decades. The younger Rhaenyra will be played by Milly Alcock.
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO on August 21, 2022.
