New House of the Dragon Trailer Previews War Between the Targaryens

HBO’s House of the Dragon arrives next month, and a new trailer teases the war to come between members of House Targaryen. HBO released the new trailer on Tuesday for the series, which stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, and Emma D’Arcy and premieres on August 21st.

The trailer focuses on the split between the members of House Targaryen during the time that the Game of Thrones preqel takes place, 200 years before the events of the original series. As King Viserys (Considine) is pressed to choose an heir, his brother Daemon (Smith) is the current next in line. But there is support for Viserys’ firstborn child, Rhaenyra (D’Arcy) who is making a case despite the fact that no woman has ever sat on the Iron Throne. Into this enters Alicent Hightower (Cooke), Rhaenyra’s friend, who tells the king that his “duty is to take a new wife” — and clearly has her eyes on the spot.

We also get new looks at Steve Toussaint as Lord Corlys Velaryon, the “Sea Snake,” and Rhys Ifans as as Alicent’s father Otto Hightower. And of course, this being the time when dragons were not extinct, we see plenty of House Targaryens’ great creatures.

The series comes from Ryan J. Condal and George R. R. Martin and is based on Martin’s Fire & Blood. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, who directed some of Thrones’ most lauded episodes, serve as showrunners. The series will tell the story of House Targaryen, who as we know from Game of Thrones and its source material A Song of Ice and Fire were nearly eliminated by the civil war the series will be set just before.