He’s already got Doctor Who, Terminator and The Crown under his belt, and now Matt Smith has his next major role lined up. The British actor is among a trio of new additions to HBO’s much-anticipated Game of Thrones spinoff House of the Dragon, a prequel series focusing on House Targaryen. Smith is joined by Olivia Cooke (Ready Player One) and Emma D’Arcy (Truth Seekers), along with Paddy Considine (Peaky Blinders), who’s already announced to be playing King Viserys.
Smith will portray Prince Daemon Targaryen, described as the “younger brother to King Viserys and heir to the throne. A peerless warrior and a dragonrider, Daemon possesses the true blood of the dragon. But it is said that whenever a Targaryen is born, the gods toss a coin in the air…” The actor’s involvement in the project has been rumored for the past couple of months, but unlike all the chatter that he was joining Star Wars last year, this one actually panned out.
Cooke, meanwhile, will be playing Alicent Hightower, “the daughter of Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King, and the most comely woman in the Seven Kingdoms. She was raised in the Red Keep, close to the king and his innermost circle; she possesses both a courtly grace and a keen political acumen.” And as for D’Arcy, she’s Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, “the king’s first-born child, she is of pure Valyrian blood, and she is a dragonrider. Many would say that Rhaenyra was born with everything… but she was not born a man.”
Three new directors have also been confirmed to be working on the show’s first season: Clare Kilner, Geeta Patel and Greg Yaitanes. They join GoT veteran Miguel Sapochnik, who’ll helm the pilot and serve as showrunner alongside Ryan Condel. Set 300 years prior to the events of the original TV series, as pulled from concepts found in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, season 1 consists of 10 episodes and is due to head into production in England in 2021 before debuting on HBO sometime in 2022.
Of course, Smith has several intriguing projects on the way, including Sony’s Marvel movie Morbius, Edgar Wright’s next effort Last Night in Soho and drama The Forgiven, which he features in opposite Jessica Chastain. But tell us, are you excited to see him and his co-stars in House of the Dragon when it arrives in a few years from now? Let us know in the usual place down below and watch this space for more.