‘The Hobbit’ Star Secretly Joins ‘Game of Thrones’ Prequel ‘House of the Dragon’

Actor Graham McTavish confirmed on Monday that he has been cast in the Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon. McTavish is known for roles in Outlander and The Hobbit and has been rumored to be joining the HBO cast for a while now. He casually confirmed the hearsay in an interview with the British fashion magazine Stylist.

“I’m enjoying that, yes,” McTavish said when asked about House od the Dragon. “I’m really having a lot of fun. We’ve just started. It’s a very big project, so we’re getting to know each other. They’re lovely people. It’s great but I can’t tell you too much I can’t tell you really anything about the story! But it involves a lot of dragons.” McTavish’s role has not been revealed either, though there are many fan-favorite characters still yet to be cast from George R.R. Martin’s book Fire and Blood.

McTavish will be familiar to fantasy fans after playing the dwarf Dwalin in the Hobbit film trilogy, and for playing the royal spy Dijkstra in Netflix’s The Witcher. He also provides the voice of Dracula in Netflix’s animated Castlevania series and Dougal Mackenzie in Outlander. In his interview with Stylist on Monday, he was promoting Season 2 of his docu-series Men in Kilts.

There are a number of characters that McTavish could be playing, and fans are already busy speculating about them on social media. Many are referring to Fire and Blood, a fictional history book about Westeros that serves as the basis for House of the Dragon. While it can be hard to tell from the writing style who will become an important character in the TV version, fans already have some ideas.

The most popular guess seems to be that McTavish will play Harrold Westerling, a knight who served in the Kingsguard under King Viserys I Targaryen — whom we already know will be played by Paddy Considine. Because the book depicts such a vast timeframe, it shows Westerling becoming the Lord Commander of the Kingsguard — though presumably, the TV version will pick up after this has already happened.

Whoever McTavish is playing, he is a welcome addition to the cast. House of the Dragon is filming now in the U.K. and is expected to premiere on HBO sometime in 2022. Fire and Blood is available here on Amazon now in print, digital and audiobook formats.

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