It opens with a devastated Rhaenyra staring out into sea as a voiceover declares that “errors were made in the hours following King Viserys’s death.” Cut to the new King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) and Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen assembling their troops and preparing for battle, and Rhys Ifans’s Otto Hightower strategizing with his daughter, the now Dowager Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke). “Many will die,” she murmurs. Then, as is to be expected in the Game of Thrones universe, there are a flurry of beheadings, horses galloping through brutal battle scenes, bursts of dragon fire, and a stunning shot of two dragons and their riders facing up to each other on an expansive beach. As Eve Best’s Princess Rhaenys puts it, “There’s no war so bloody as a war between dragons.”
Photo: Courtesy of HBO
As the trailer makes clear, much of the first season’s cast—including Steve Toussaint’s Corlys Velaryon, Fabien Frankel’s Criston Cole, Sonoya Mizuno’s Mysaria, Harry Collett’s Prince Jacaerys, Bethany Antonia’s Lady Baela, Phoebe Campbell’s Lady Rhaena Targaryen, and Phia Saban’s Queen Helaena—will return.
Photo: Courtesy of HBO