New 'House of the Dragon' Images Take 'Game of Thrones' Fans Back to Westeros

Michael Hein

07/13/2022 04:23 pm EDT

There are just over six weeks to go until House of the Dragon premieres on HBO, a whole host of new teaser images just dropped. Entertainment Weekly has published new images from behind the scenes, including character portraits, episodic stills and never-before-seen set features. Scroll on for a tour of the new Westeros.

House of the Dragon takes many of the fan-favorite elements of Game of Thrones and turns up the heat – medieval pageantry, larger-than-life characters, epic sword fights and, of course, dragons. We get a pretty good spread of all those things in the new batch of set photos – except, sadly, for the dragons. Still, there's plenty here to show new fans or old what is coming and why this series will be essential viewing for all fantasy lovers. It shows that many of the aspects of life in Westeros that were dropped or underplayed in Game of Thrones will be front and center here.

House of the Dragon will start about 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones, at a time when House Targaryen was arguably at the height of its power. It is the story of how these dragon-riders came into conflict with one another and took much of the realm down with them. It is based on a portion of George R.R. Martin's fictional history book Fire & Blood, but since that show has a unique format, the show will still have plenty of new plot points to uncover.

House of the Dragon premieres on Sunday, Aug. 21 on HBO. Scroll on for some views of Westeros to hold us over until then.

Young Queens

Emily Carey plays a young version of Alicent Hightower and Milly Alcock plays a young version of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen. Fans have long suspected that the two of them were friendly when they were young, and this photo seems to hint at that relationship. Meanwhile, the face in the background promises that House of the Dragon won't ignore the other magical elements of Westeros in favor of dragons.

Adult Queens

According to EW, House of the Dragon will have a linear timeline, so fans won't see Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke take over the roles of Rhaenyra and Alicent respectively until later in the season. When they do, we can expect it to make the transformation that much more impactful.

Armor

Over time, Game of Thrones steered away from the bright colors, ornate designs and general flamboyance of knighthood in Westeros. That's why many fans were pleased to see Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) in this intricate set of armor.

Iron Throne

The Iron Throne has been redesigned to look more like its description in the book for this series. It is clearly more dangerous and more foreboding.

Great Council

For fans of the books, this may be the most exciting new image of all. It shows King Jaeherys Targaryen I – a character who won't be very prominent in House of the Dragon, but who is quite important in the books. The third Targaryen to rule Westeros, he is one of the longest-reigning and most accomplished. This image reportedly shows him at the "Great Council," where he calls the lords of Westeros together for a political conference. In the books, this took place at Harrenhal, which might explain why he is not on the Iron Throne.

Portraits

The report includes ne portraits of many of the main characters in this show. Fans are excited for their best look at Eve Best as Rhaenys Targaryen, "The Queen Who Never Was." Many are also taking the chance to critique the Targaryen wigs more closely than ever before.

Video

Finally, a 10-minute video feature filmed on the set gives a few more images to get fans excited. House of the Dragon premieres on Sunday, Aug. 21 on HBO.

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