26 Photos Of The House Of The Dragon Cast In Costume Vs. IRL

There’s no denying the House Of The Dragon cast is hot — like flames. Before the Season 1 finale on Oct. 23, let’s look back at this ridiculously good-looking cast in full costume and what they look like IRL. You’ll see some of them return for Season 2.

Milly Alcock portrays a young Rhaenyra for Episodes 1-5 before the show’s time jump. She read a scene that was from the original Game of Thrones show for her audition for HOTD, which supposedly was about Arya Stark.

She told to The New York Times that following her stint on House of the Dragon, she had no plans. “I don’t even know what I’m doing tomorrow,” Alcock revealed. “So no idea.” Relatable!

Emma D’Arcy took over Alcock’s role starting in Episode 6 after a 10-year time jump. They told Vogue that they had not seen the original HBO series prior to auditioning.

“I’m very naive, and the job was untitled, so I thought it was just another fantasy series,” D’Arcy says. “I just don’t think there’s any way that I would have dealt with the pressure of the auditions process if, at that time, I had the love for Game of Thrones that I have now.”

Emily Carey, who played young Alicent Hightower, also didn’t know what to do after her five episodes were done. “Milly paces, and I sit and do Lego, and that’s the vibe,” she told the NYT.

Carey also said the sudden departure was odd: “It’s strange handing off a character that is so personal. “As actors, we put so much of ourselves into the people we play. So it’s strange having to leave someone’s story halfway through.”

Olivia Cooke as an older Alicent has, to put it lightly, been entertaining to watch throughout the season’s second half.

However, Cooke acknowledged how complicated her character can be. “You’re seeing her struggle with her womanhood and the power that she does have to play that is completely separate from her husband or her father or even her children,” she told Entertainment Weekly.

Paddy Considine, who plays King Viserys, describes his character as “a good man but a bad king” since he tries to please everyone. “At the heart of him, he’s also a dragon, too, and there’s only so much Viserys can take,” he told The Hollywood Reporter.

Considine told Entertainment Weekly’s West of Westeros podcast about his onscreen ailment, saying that his physical deterioration “becomes a metaphor for being king, and the stress and strain that it puts on you, you know? What it does to you physically, what it does to you mentally.”

Fun fact: Matt Smith was convinced to audition for the role of Daemon partially thanks to Considine.

“I was such a huge admirer of Paddy’s and I’d always wanted to work with him,” Smith told The Hollywood Reporter. “So that was a real draw.”

Steve Toussaint portrays Corlys Velaryon. His character may be a boat guy, but Toussaint told The New York Times that he doesn’t fare well at sea. Guess it’s called “acting” for a reason!

“It’s a weird thing,” he told the outlet. “The last couple of times I’ve been on a boat, I suddenly started getting seasick. I’ve never had that in my life, but just recently it started happening.”

Fabien Frankel says his role as Ser Criston Cole allowed him some elbow room in figuring out his character. “There is no one really like him in any of the original show or in the books – you know, this kind of looming figure that appears out of nowhere and all of a sudden is right at the heart of this whole thing.”

Despite his change of allegiance in the latter half of the season, Twitter agrees that Ser Criston Cole is hot. And Frankel thinks Matt Smith is “damn sexy,” FWIW.

Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower has been pretty straight-faced on the show, but apparently he was a prankster among the cast, making his co-stars laugh between scenes.

Frankel claimed that Ifans would “scream obscenities on your closeups so that you would uncontrollably laugh during your takes,” which we would love to see in the bloopers reel.

John MacMillan is Ser Laenor Velaryon, our unproblematic king. “He’s a wonderful guy in a terrible situation,” MacMillan told Vulture of his character’s circumstances.

After his escape at the end of Episode 7, it remains unclear if we will see Laenor again. We wouldn’t be mad if we did!

Eve Best portrays Rhaenys, whose claim to the Iron Throne was given to her cousin Viserys instead. She is often referred to as The Queen That Never Was.

Best is a fan-favorite, especially after her character’s epic Episode 9 moment. As per The Guardian, she was especially excited finding out that Rhaenys rides dragons when landing the role — but who wouldn’t be?

If you think Ryan Corr, who portrays Ser Harwin Strong, looks good here, wait until you see him outside the Realm.

Told you!

The House of the Dragon comes out Oct. 23.