EGN NEWS DESK
Where does the story decide up this season on HBO’s fantasy epic “House of the Dragon”?
“So,” the actor Tom Glynn-Carney informed a reporter on Monday night time on the Season 2 premiere at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom, every little thing “hits the fan.”
His character within the “Game of Thrones” prequel, the newly topped King Aegon II Targaryen, holds a grip on the throne that’s tenuous at finest. His brother has simply killed their nephew in what may finest be described as demise by dragon chomp. And his sister Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen is on the point of going nuclear — as Targaryens are likely to do — seemingly with extra dragon chomping.
Even as Mr. Glynn-Carney, Matt Smith and different “Dragon” actors laid out the violence in retailer for the brand new season — which returns June 16 — the present’s impending civil struggle stood in stark distinction to the night’s cocktails and joviality, with not a single silvery wig in sight.
Some actors have struggled to acknowledge one another with out them, mentioned Phia Saban, whose character, Queen Helaena Targaryen, performs a crucial function in an early episode. (There had been 114 wigs used this season, HBO’s chief government Casey Bloys mentioned on the premiere, and — again to the dragon chomping — 33 gallons of pretend blood.)
The night time was additionally a victory lap for a dangerous spinoff that had early hopes of dwelling as much as its popular culture juggernaut of a predecessor. “Dragon” averaged, in line with HBO, round 29 million viewers every episode in its first season — numbers that aren’t removed from the data damaged by “Thrones.”
“The greatest factor that we had coming into Season 2 was simply realizing that we had our viewers and that they trusted us,” the showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal mentioned in an interview on the inexperienced carpet, “and that we simply needed to now repay on what they had been anticipating.”
Some of the actors dressed in line with the season’s color-coded rivalry, which has been performed up within the present’s advertising. Team Black for the Targaryens aligned with Rhaenyra — performed by Emma D’Arcy, who wore a rhinestone-covered black Celine jacket — and Team Green for the Hightowers and Targaryens supporting Aegon’s declare. (Mr. Glynn-Carney’s velvet swimsuit was a deep pine.)
Olivia Cooke, whose character, Queen Alicent Hightower, typically wears her home’s emerald hues, opted as a substitute for a cerulean Loewe robe: “I’m bored of inexperienced now,” she mentioned.
Ms. Saban paid homage one other manner, with a buoyant robin’s egg bubble of a Stella McCartney gown. “I form of really feel like a dragon egg,” she mentioned on the carpet, giving a bit of twirl.
At the after-party, within the shadow of a large Thronesian tree with blood-red leaves, solid members mingled with greater than 450 visitors, a mixture of workers and executives from HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery alongside a smattering of actors and influencers.
Ms. Cooke spoke in a single nook of the ballroom with the actor Justin Theroux. He was there to assist his good friend Clare Kilner, a director on the present. The actress Emilia Jones, from “CODA,” slipped in late sporting a brand new mullet. (The timing and her hair, she mentioned, could possibly be attributed to a brand new HBO crime drama collection she is filming alongside Fabien Frankel, one other “Dragon” actor who performs Ser Criston Cole.)
Swerve Strickland, an expert wrestler, carried a blindingly embellished All Elite Wrestling championship belt over his shoulder all through the night time. Some of his personal efficiency in competitors, he mentioned, has been impressed by the present: “I form of pull loads of issues,” he mentioned, including, “loads of the story and character improvement are what I do within the ring, too.”
“I used to be a nasty man for some time,” he added, noting that his character feels just like Mr. Smith’s morally grey Daemon Targaryen. “Now I’m form of switching over, however I nonetheless have bad-guy components.”
A protracted line of attendees gathered beside a duplicate of the Iron Throne itself, ready to take a photograph surrounded by heaps of swords.
Nearby, a desk stacked with slices of pizza performed up the approaching onscreen battles with a extra acquainted New York rivalry: Would visitors choose Roberta’s Pizza and its Calabrian chile “Slice of the Seven Kingdoms”? Or John’s of Bleecker Street’s cherry pepper and ricotta choices?
(There had been 60 giant pizzas available, these working the ovens mentioned — John True, a manager at Roberta’s and a large “Thrones” fan, added that he had eagerly volunteered to work the party on his time without work.)
The night’s specialty cocktails added to the fiery theme, together with a tequila-based concoction with jalapeños and, after all, a dragon fruit lemonade.
There was no signal, nonetheless, of any Negroni Sbagliatos.
