It’s been two years since season one of ‘House of the Dragon’ hit our screens promising the fill the glaring ‘Game of Thrones’ and George RR Martin gap in our lives.
The first season tackled the heavy-lifting of setting up the Targaryen dynasty, with Paddy Considine’s King Viserys I trying to produce male heir and leave his realm in a stable and peaceful state.
No such luck, of course, and season 2 picks up the story with the Seven Kingdoms on the verge of an almighty civil war, with Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and the so-called Greens on one side, and her ex-BFF Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’arcy) and the Blacks on the other.
Expect dragons – lots of them – as the nascent conflict takes shape and all the scheming thickens into some bloody, fiery and noisy across the season’s eight episodes. And look out for more widescreen locations as the showrunners bring the key settings – King’s Landing, Dragonstone, the Riverlands et al – to life on a new scale. Here’s where they found them.
Where is House of the Dragon season 2 filmed?
Season 1 used locations in Spain, Cornwall and Derbyshire, as well as studio space at Leavesden. The second run heads back to Spain and the historical western Spanish town of Cáceres, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Extremadura. The town is famous for its 30 Arabic towers and, along with the nearby Trujillo, stands in for King’s Landing.
For the second season, there was even more location work involved, including a few trips to north Wales, which doubled as The Vale, the Riverlands and Dragonstone. Dinorwic and Trefor quarries in Snowdonia were used as the exteriors of Dragonstone and Harrenhal castles, while the island of Anglesey, and the sandy Llanddwyn Beach on its southern coastline, were both used extensively as Westeros’s moody shorelines.
Ogwen Valley in Gwynedd and Conwy county’s Penmachno Roman Bridge (actually dating back to the 17th century) are other Welsh locations used in season 2.
‘It was great to be shooting in Wales with its stunning scenery and landscapes, that bring to life our Westeros,’ says executive producer Kevin de la Noy. ‘I had no hesitation in taking “House of the Dragon” there, as we knew the support from government and the local populous would help us achieve remarkable footage.’
The increased scale of season 2 is reflected in the stats: a five-and-a-half-month shoot; 1,250 crew working on the production at one time; 400 principal costumes and 5,000 more for the supporting cast; 250 extras used on one epic battle scene alone.
That battle may or may not have been filmed at Surrey’s Bourne Wood, recently used as the setting for the Battle of Austerlitz in Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’, and once the scene for the opening battle in ‘Gladiator’. Online speculation suggest the sequence filmed there involves one or more dragons. ‘[Filming there] was really special,’ says actor Fabien Frankel, Ser Criston Cole in the show. ‘That’s cinematic history and we were filming on the same ground.’
The show’s studio space was once again Warner Bros.’s Leavesden lot in Hertfordshire. The studio’s expansive backlot was used regularly for exteriors, including the dry dock at Driftmark, where Lord Corlys Velaryon’s (Steve Toussaint) ship, the Sea Snake, is being repaired, as well as the Red Keep courtyard in King’s Landing, and the godswood forest at Harrenhal.
How to watch House of the Dragon season 2
It’s available on Sky Atlantic and NOW TV in the UK, with episode 1 landing on June 17 and the remaining seven episodes landing weekly at 2am on Monday mornings. In the US, you can catch it on Max, Hulu, Apple TV+ and Fandango at Home.
What are reviews saying?
Variety writes that the show has ‘hit its stride’ in the ‘bigger, bleaker’ second season, becoming ‘a tragedy of epic proportions, bleaker than even the famously violent and cynical “Game of Thrones” could ever dream’. ‘Little on television can truly rival “House of the Dragon’s” scope and scale,’ says CNN.
The Australian, meanwhile, has praise for the show’s gnarly levels of violence. ‘If you thought you had built up a cast-iron stomach, immune to whatever horrors the “Game of Thrones” franchise may hurl your way, think again,’ writes its critic.
Not every outlet is so effusive. ‘This world has more dragons to show off, but less of the natural magic that made “Game of Thrones” a satisfying weekly destination,’ grumbles Salon. The New York Times agrees, noting that season 2 is ‘neither interesting enough to pull us consistently into the flow nor weird enough to rattle our chains’.
The writing also gets short shrift from USA Today: ’There is so much lost potential in every boring decision and lacklustre line reading.’