5 things fans missed from the extended House of the Dragon trailer

With just under a month to go until House of the Dragon premieres on HBO, the promotional campaign has now ramped up several notches.

After an official trailer finally dropped last week, 11 of the show’s cast, plus producers Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal, assembled for the convention.

Even A Song of Ice and Fire author George R. R. Martin made a surprise appearance after initially announcing that he would not be in attendance.

To mark the occasion, HBO then dropped an extended trailer, featuring all-new footage and previously unheard dialogue from the first season.

We’ve taken a deep dive into that super-sized bundle of brand new footage to discover anything you might have missed at first glance.

The Dragonpit wasn’t always a ruin

There’s a shot in both versions of the trailer of a dragon (probably Caraxes, owned by Daemon Tagraryen) in flight over King’s Landing, as buildings both small and tall roll beneath it. In the distance is an impressive, mighty construction that stands on one of the city’s highest hills, towering over everything around it.

It might not be immediately apparent, but that is the famous Targaryen dragonpit. By the time we see it in season 7 of Game of Thrones, the ginormous structure has been reduced to rubble, but believe it or not, it was once the largest and most awe-inspiring sight in the entire city. Built by Maegor Targaryen half-a-century before the events of House of the Dragon, it signifies that we’re in the peak of the Targaryen dynasty. There are rumoured to be 17 dragons in this show, so they’ve got to find somewhere to put them!

By the time Bran the Broken is elected as the new king of the Six Kingdoms, the dragonpit is a ruin. I wonder if House of the Dragon will one day show us how it was reduced to almost nothing – did it wither away slowly, or was it destroyed?

Heaps of previously unseen footage

Last week, when HBO gave us the official House of the Dragon trailer, we were served up heaps of new footage to get our teeth in to. But little did we know that that was only the beginning of an exciting weekend of new material. This latest trailer, which is over three minutes long, features more and more brand new scenes from first season.

It opens with a young Princess Rhaenyra (Milly Alcock) walking into an empty throne room, with the imposing Iron Throne coming into focus in front of her.

Seated upon the throne appears to be King Viserys I (Paddy Considine), who is later seen leaning down towards his daughter before giving us the latest slice of new dialogue: ‘The Iron Throne is the most dangerous seat in the realm, and our line is vulnerable – too easily ended.’

Next up is Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), who is seen holding hands with Viserys while an older Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) tells her father that he is the king, and that his duty is to ‘take a new wife’.

Rhaenyra appears in a voiceover shortly afterwards to tell us that ‘when [she] is queen’ she will ‘create a new order’. Those words eerily echo the sentiments of Targaryen descendant Daenerys, who will not be born for another 150 years yet.

Then, the defining line from the trailer is spoken by a young Rhaenyra to bring us towards the finish line: ‘Targaryens are closer to gods than men’.

As the number of cuts begins to speed up, we do get a few glimpses of a character believed to be Craghas Drahar, otherwise known as ‘Crabfeeder’, whose actor is still currently unknown.

Everything will depend on Alicent and Rhaenyra’s friendship

It’s now been confirmed that the first season of House of the Dragon is going to be split in half – the first five episodes will be based roughly in the year 101 AC and head slightly forwards in time from there, while the second half of the season will pick up in 129 AC and continue on. The strongest indication of the contrast between the two eras is the relationship between Alicent and Rhaenyra.

As teenagers, they’re best friends. We see them lighting candles together and enjoying each other’s company, but the seeds of doubt are sewn when it becomes clear that Rhaenyra being Viserys’ named heir will obstruct Alicent’s own designs for the Iron Throne, alongside Daemon’s (Matt Smith) outraged cry of ‘I’m your heir!’ when Viserys makes it clear that he will change the plan of succession.

By the end of the trailer, Alicent is diving at Rhaenyra with a familiar blade in hand. Rhaenyra manages to hold Alicent back for long enough to say that the King’s Landing public now see her for who she truly is. How did the teenage BFFs end up at each other’s throats?

We’ll be returning to Dragonstone

One of the most prominent locations in all of Game of Thrones was the island castle of Dragonstone. Initially used as a military base by Stannis Baratheon in season two, three and four, it was left abandoned until Daenerys arrived in season seven and set up her own war councils around the famous Painted Table.

Back in the days of Viserys’ reign, it was used to house the heir to the throne. It was the original seat of the Targaryens when they first came to Westeros over 100 years before the events of House of the Dragon. Princess Rhaenyra will be spending a lot of time there in the first season of the upcoming series.

We see an overhead shot of the island’s iconic winding stone staircase, then a shot from the ground as dragons soar the skies and island cliffs with the sun high above them. Daemon is then seen squaring up to a small force assembled by Otto Hightower (Alicent’s father) towards the foot of the island.

That Velvet Underground cover

It was announced back in 2020 that Ramin Djawadi would be returning to The World of Ice and Fire to compose the official score and soundtrack for House of the Dragon. This news delighted fans, as Djawadi’s iconic work for Game of Thrones always stole the show, even amongst the ginormous set pieces and famous battles that defined its later seasons.

Those with an ear for 60s experimental rock will have no doubt recognised the music playing in the background as a modern classical re-arrangement and cover of The Velvet Underground’s Venus in Furs. However, Ramin Djawadi was not responsible for it on this occasion. Canadian trio Blitz//Berlin have been credited with the track, which has all the hallmarks of Djawadi’s composition work for fellow HBO series Westworld.

In fact, fans are so much in love with the music for the trailer that many believed it to be Djawadi’s work until Blitz//Berlin posted on their Instagram story that it was actually theirs after all. Impressive work, guys!

House of The Dragon launches on Sky and HBO on August 21.