‘Game of Thrones’ Actor Reveals It’s ‘Too Soon’ to Watch ‘House of The Dragon’

House of the Dragon may have smashed records when it premiered on HBO in August, but at least one star from the flagship series Game of Thrones wasn’t among the millions of viewers tuning in weekly. Actor Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who starred in all eight seasons of GoT as Jaime Lannister, recently admitted that he hasn’t watched the Game of Thrones prequel series just yet, sharing in an interview with Entertainment Weekly he found it “too soon” to watch the show.

Asked about House of The Dragon and if he has binged it yet while promoting his new show, Apple TV+’s thriller The Last Thing He Told Me, Coster-Waldau told the outlet, “I have not.” It seems that the show’s opening credits, which use the same theme music and are very similar to GoT, may have scared the actor away for the time being.

“One day it came on and I saw the opening credits. And it was a little strange because it was the same music and the title sequence was kind of similar. I was like, ‘Ah, this is too soon. Too soon,’” Coster-Waldau shared. “I’ll wait. I’ll give it a couple of seasons, then I can binge watch it and then there’s the whole thing. But I know that so many people love that show, and I’m really happy for them.”

Coster-Waldau is not alone in being unable to watch the hit series, which broke numerous records through its debut run. Emilia Clark, who appeared in GoT as Daenerys Targaryen, told Variety in January, “It’s too weird. I just can’t do it. It’s so weird. It’s so strange. It’s kind of like someone saying, ‘You want to go to this school reunion that’s not your year? You want to go to that school reunion?’ That’s kind of how it feels. I’m avoiding it.”

House of the Dragon premiered in August 2022 and serves as a prequel to Game of Thrones. Based on George R.R. Martin’s book Fire & Blood, the series is set approximately 200 years before the events in Game of Thrones and focuses on House Targaryen’s rule over Westeros, starting with its high point and extending into one of its darkest chapters. It stars Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, and Rhys Ifans, among others. The series has been picked up for a second season, with HBO also developing several other GoT spinoffs, including a Jon Snow spinoff set to bring Kit Harington back to the fan-favorite character.