Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon casting hints at different timelines

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It has been some time since we last reported on HBO’s House of the Dragon and there have been some news lately with filming officially confirmed to begin in 2021. We won’t go into the details of the other recent tidbits since in this section we focus on our own findings. And this time we do have something intriguing to share.


We have heard that a while ago HBO were casting for characters codenamed YR and YA to film in April 2021. At first glance this may not say anything, but if you’re thinking about it, it becomes obvious that they are Young Rhaenyra and Young Alicent. Both women were wanted in their 20s, one a little older than the other.

Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower by Douglas Wheatley

This brings us to the obvious question: if there are separate Young Rhaenyras and Young Alicents, House of the Dragon must have a “normal” Rhaenyra and Alicent, right? Just like other shows introduce younger version characters named “Young [insert name]”, when doing flashbacks . If this is the case, how old will older Rhaenyra and Alicent be if their young counterparts are in their 20s?

We can’t really guess, but the age difference between young and old characters must be big enough to justify casting an entirely different actress for the same role and not making just one actress appear younger or older with the magic of makeup.

The other takeaway from this are the timelines. The one thing we heard and that was reported a little earlier was that House of the Dragon will begin its story 193 years before Game of Thrones. Game of Thrones started in 298 AC so that means House of the Dragon begins in 105 AC, the year king Viserys named his daughter Rhaenyra his heir. The Targaryen civil war, Dance of the Dragons, doesn’t break out until 129 AC so House of the Dragon might jump back and forth in timelines.

The very first official logline for the series mentioned that we would see the story explore “the years leading up to and including Dance of the Dragons” so now it is a little more clear how they intend to cover those years and where they will begin.


Filming for HBO’s House of the Dragon won’t start until a few months from now and more official casting announcements are probably on the way as well. Until then, we’ll report on what else we find on our Witcher path.

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