House of the Dragon returns June 21, and the people making it are not being modest about what viewers are about to see.
Showrunner Ryan Condal appeared Thursday night at the ATX TV Festival in Austin, Texas, where he described the season's opening episode as "the craziest episode of television ever made." The episode centers on the Battle of the Gullet, which Condal called "the bloodiest naval battle ever fought in the recorded history of Westeros."
According to IndieWire, HBO showed exclusive behind-the-scenes footage at the festival revealing that 123 stunt performers were set on fire in a single take during production, a number the studio says sets a new world record.
Condal walked back the claim only slightly when pressed. "It's, of course, up to the audience to decide what they think of the episode, but the things we had to engineer and figure out how to do just to make this episode of television what it was — pretty damn crazy," he said.
The production leaned heavily on practical effects. "In the water, there are multiple ships interacting that are real physical sets, and the fire, and the dragons, and all these things are knitted together to make it seem like it's all happening in the same place and the same time," Condal said. "So much of this episode is practical."
Joining Condal on the ATX panel were four cast members. Steve Toussaint plays Lord Corlys Velaryon, known as the Sea Snake, and teased his character's arc this season by saying he is "trying to make amends with his illegitimate son and not doing it very successfully." He added that the season would "take the character who has everything, and slowly take it all away from him."
Abubakar Salim plays Corlys' son Alyn of Hull. "Alyn is getting deeper and deeper into the family politics — not by choice, really," Salim said. Harry Collett, who plays dragonrider Jacaerys Velaryon, described his character in blunter terms: "He's extremely angry and he knows what he wants and he's going to get it."
Bethany Antonia rounds out the panel as Lady Baela Targaryen, another dragonrider bonded to the dragon Moondancer.
Season 3 of House of the Dragon premieres on HBO on June 21.
