The cast of the Game of Thrones spinoff expands once more, with House of the Dragon announcing several new additions today! Variety confirmed seven more actors for the show, including Graham McTavish, who has made his appearing on HOTD a public secret already. McTavish will be playing the part of Ser Harrold Westerling, a role many speculated for him. Variety was able to confirm his role on the show and make quite a few other exciting announcements.
In addition to McTavish, the new cast members include:
Ryan Corr as Ser Harwin ‘Breakbones’ Strong – “‘Breakbones’, Harwin is said to be the strongest man in the Seven Kingdoms. Ser Harwin is the eldest son to Master of Laws Lyonel Strong and heir to Harrenhal.”
Jefferson Hall as as Lord Jason Lannister – “The Lord of Casterly Rock and twin to Ser Tyland Lannister; and Tyland Lannister– A crafty and calculating politician, twin to Lord Jason Lannister.” If Hall looks familiar, it’s because you all watched him die in the first season of Game of Thrones as Ser Hugh of the Vale, in the Tourney of the Hand.
David Horovitch as Grand Maester Mellos – A voice of reason and trusted advisor to King Viserys.
Matthew Needham as Larys Strong – Younger son of Master of Laws Lyonel Strong, brought to court by his father.
Bill Paterson as Lord Lyman Beesbury – Lord of Honeyholt and Master of Coin on King Viserys’s small council.
Gavin Spokes as Lord Lyonel Strong – Master of Laws to King Viserys and Lord of Harrenhal.
The complete description for McTavish’s Ser Harrold Westerling is, “Ser Harrold has served in the Kingsguard since the days of King Jaehaerys; he is a paragon of chivalry and honor.”
Fantastic day! Are you looking forward to anyone in particular? I was wondering if HBO would ever have an issue with casting on HOTD someone who’d been on GoT in a speaking role. Granted it was season 1, and not a large part, but still. It opens the door for it to happen again.
Is Jefferson Hall playing both Lannister twins? It reads that way which is odd.
He is.
Raga,
Yes, that’s how it’s phrased, and it would make sense to have one actor to play twins. It would be far from the first time.
”The complete description for McTavish’s Ser Harrold Westerling is, “Ser Harrold has served in the Kingsguard since the days of King Jaehaerys; he is a paragon of chivalry and honor.”
A paragon of chivalry and honor? In GRRMWorld that means he gets stabbed in the back or put out to pasture midway through Season 1, doesn’t it?
Torstein!!!!
I have found my character(s) to be truly excited about. ❤
Wow, what a lot of information on cast and which characters they’ll be playing — awesome 🙂
Torstein is exactly what I knew him as. Didn’t even realize the same guy was Ser Hugh. I suspect that will be fairly common, as there is likely a lot of audience crossover between Game of Thrones and Vikings. He gets a much better death scene! I hope that isn’t a spoiler for whoever hasn’t seen it, but Vikings takes place over many decades and almost every main character eventually dies because it covers multiple generations.
I must have a mental block or a reading comprehension deficit.
Who is Torstein? I did not see that character’s or actor’s name among “the seven more cast members.”
“Torstein” doesn’t seem like a typical GRRM-created surname.
Sigil: Bagel, lox and cream cheese 🥯 against a borscht-purple background?
Torstein Ancestral sword ______.
Torstein House Words: _______.
Torstein family castle: ________.
Adam,
Wait, was “Torstein” a Viking on a different show?
Ten Bears,
Torstein was one of my favourite characters on “Vikings”, so I have a particular fondness for Jefferson Hall. 😊
Neither did I, but to be fair we didn’t really get much to work with there. 😄
Based on these new castings, the characters they’ll be playing, their ages, and the “historical” events in which they’d be involved, do you think we’re in a better position to speculate that Young Rhaenyra and Young Alicent won’t be mere “flashback characters,” but will have meaty roles in HotD?
I think there’s a good chance! 🙂
Additionally, I think the photos from the beach scenes that we’ve seen may be the War for the Stepstones,
As a result, I think it’s possible we’ll be getting a good bunch of episodes covering the earlier parts of the story where Rhaenyra and Alicent are both young 🙂
Graham is the first actor I have liked so far. This show will not live up to the hype. Hope I am wrong though.
Ulf the Wolf,
Regarding being up to the hype I haven’t heard much hype yet outside of of the fandom
But it made me think about what will make a good show. What was it that made GOT so special that first season. Some is just the source material. I’ve read the Princess and the queen novella but I haven’t read fire and blood so I’m not as familiar as others here with what happens. In GOT Jaime was outrageous when he was doing what he was doing with his sister and then pushed Bran out the Window. I’m not sure if there is anything so outrageous in the source material for tHotD. Then they killed off the main character Ned and again I’m not sure if the source material for this show has any of those sorts of twists. Maybe others can put in spoiler tags if there are things like GOT’s first season that will shock us. The dragons will be cool but dragon cgi won’t be enough. You need at least some of the elements from GOT that made it exciting to watch.
Aaaauuuggghhh!!!!!!
https://www.google.com/amp/s/variety.com/2021/tv/news/the-last-of-us-show-pedro-pascal-first-look-1235074858/amp/
Tron79,
”But it made me think about what will make a good show. What was it that made GOT so special that first season.”
A: High thread count scenes. A pilot episode that invites you to care about a character.
”The dragons will be cool but dragon cgi won’t be enough. You need at least some of the elements from GOT that made it exciting to watch.”
Ugh. If HotD is the Firebreathing Dragon Adventure Hour, count me out.
The more I think about it, the more I’m convinced that HotD has to be captivating right out of the gate. Episode 1 has to hook the audience. Aside from all of the competition from streaming platforms and other media (which we’ve talked about), I’m wondering if the current boss at HBO has an itchy trigger finger when it comes to euthanizing underperforming shows, without giving them breathing room to build an audience.
Look what happened to Vinyl – with Martin Scorsese as producer and Karsi in a co-starring role. After only one season HBO pulled the plug.
Then “Blood Moon” with Naomi Watts suddenly got cancelled after filming the pilot episode.
For better or worse, HotD’s writers have a pretty clean slate. If they write an engrossing story and rich dialogue, I think the show will do fine. If they fall back on dragon CGI…well, as you said, that “won’t be enough.”
Pardon me being a little silly but has Dog the Bounty Hunter been cast as a Targaryen? https://youtu.be/GDZR1bEm7tE
Dame of Mercia,
Well, it does look like Dog the Bounty Hunter has the same hairdresser as show! Rhaegar.
Interesting they are casting Lannisters as I don’t recall them featuring very much during Fire and Blood. Certainly this makes it more interesting to me as it further expands on the wider world and not just on the less intesting (for me) Targs.
Great find! I had no idea this was coming out and I’m actually really excited to see it based upon the casting (Pedro and Bella) plus the premise.