House Of The Dragon star Ewan Mitchell has said the series is not violent “for violence’s sake” and suggested that feelings of discomfort are sometimes the intention.
The 27-year-old British actor plays Aemond Targaryen, the second son of King Viserys I Targaryen and Queen Alicent Hightower, who took vengeance on Lucerys Velaryon in season one, after Lucerys took his eye out as a child.
Speaking on the red carpet of the series two premiere, he told the PA news agency: “Aemond, he is a multitude of things…
“(In series one) I wanted to present a character who, at that point in his life and in those final three episodes, was just complete darkness.
“His appearance kind of lended to that so I wanted to lean into it as much as possible.
“Going into season two you are going to see those other shades, you are going to see a shadow side to Aemond, which I can’t wait for people to see, and maybe you might even like him a little bit.”
He added: “As for the violence in our show, I don’t think there’s any violence in our show for violence’s sake.
“I always remember that moment in season one episode one during the tournament event, there’s a lot of violence and it made me feel a bit uncomfortable watching it, I think that was the intention.”
Ryan Condal, the series showrunner, reflected on what it was like to be at the helm of a show which serves as the prequel to the popular Game Of Thrones TV series, which ran for eight seasons.
He told PA: “We’re our own challengers. Coming in with series one, our biggest challenge was, how do you follow the greatest act in television history?
“The real answer is you can’t, you just have to make something that stands on its own two feet.
“And I think that was our big challenge with season one. Is anybody gonna show up?
“Thankfully, they did. Very grateful for that. And in series two, it’s, OK, now we need to follow our own act and make another great album that delivers on the expectations set up in season one and then does more of the same but bigger and bolder and with more fire.”
Season two of House Of The Dragon sees Westeros on the brink of a bloody civil war as the Green and Black Councils fight for King Aegon and Queen Rhaenyra, respectively.
