Over three years of planning have led to this: the cataclysmic Battle of the Gullet from George R.R. Martin‘s Fire & Blood. It’s the deadliest naval battle in Westerosi history, and it’s poised to be the Game of Thrones spinoff’s biggest hour ever. The fighting begins in the House of the Dragon Season 3 premiere on Sunday, June 21, on HBO.
“This one episode was the ‘effort’ equivalent of making a major franchise movie,” says executive producer Ryan Condal. But, he warns, “it is only the beginning” of Season 3’s destructive action.
The Gullet is a strip of water between Dragonstone, Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) headquarters, and King’s Landing, where the now-missing Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) reigns. Their fleets of ships (and dragons) will collide in this dark chapter of the Targaryen civil war for the Iron Throne. Says Condal, “The most dazzling thing about this sequence is the fact that, other than the wide shots and the dragons, everything is in camera. The action, the ships, the water, in most cases, are all actually there.”
Here, Condal gives an exclusive sneak peek at the action ahead in House of the Dragon Season 3 and the behind-the-scenes efforts it took to pull it all off.
Ollie Upton / HBO
How many months of preparation went into the Battle of the Gullet, and how long did it take to film?
Ryan Condal: Essentially, two years’ worth of research and development went into just figuring out how we were going to approach the sequence. I would say that probably a year of that was the actual planning, designing, and building of the infrastructure, just to be able to prep the filming of the sequence. Two different tanks had to be constructed (a wet tank and a dry tank), as well as gimbals to move the ships so they would feel like they were floating on the sea.
Then there were the months of storyboarding, pre-vis, and stunt design — and this was all after months and months of writing and revising the script itself! This one episode was the “effort” equivalent of making a (huge) major franchise movie.
Can you give a sense of the scale of your practical effects for the Battle of the Gullet?
The most dazzling thing about this sequence is the fact that, other than the wide shots (and the dragons, of course), everything is in camera. The action, the ships, and the water, in most cases, are all actually there. Again, it was no different than making a major franchise movie in terms of the (practical) resources that went into it.
Ryan Condal behind the scenes of House of the Dragon Season 3 Episode 1 (Ollie Upton / HBO)
What was the production design team’s biggest feat in bringing this battle to life?
Certainly, it was the design and function of the wet tank. Two different interactive ship sets built in the same tank, operating on separate, independent gimbals. Production built these beautiful, photo-real medieval galleys and then beat the absolute hell out of them. No one has practically produced anything like this before. You won’t believe it until you watch the wonderful behind-the-scenes documentary The House that Dragons Built.
How might Rhaenyra’s belief in messianic destiny impact her leadership in Episode 1 and this season overall?
Historically, this universe has been at its literary best when it deconstructs the epic fantasy tropes. As a writer, I was very interested in how the well-trod “chosen one” trope would look if painted with a Game of Thrones brush.
This is a world where magic and prophecy and prescient dreams do exist in some cases (particularly when it comes to Targaryens)… what would happen of a character in the story is taught to believe that they are the center of the story? How would they react to obstacles and hardship? What kind of actions would they believe justified if they simultaneously believe the gods have chosen them to play the central role in a larger story?
Ryan Condal behind the scenes of House of the Dragon Season 3 (Theo Whiteman / HBO)
How will Rhaenyra and Alicent’s [Olivia Cooke] secret meeting in the Season 2 finale impact their decision-making in Episode 1?
You’ll have to wait and see how that all plays out, but I will say that it does have an inexorable impact on the coming events.
Rhaenyra has decided to go to King’s Landing. How difficult is her journey there?
To quote a guy who left a big footprint on both my favorite epic fantasy sagas, “One does not simply walk into King’s Landing.”
Ollie Upton / HBO
How much of a united front are Daemon [Matt Smith] and Rhaenyra when the season begins?
Daemon comes out of his Season 2 experiences at Harrenhal and in the Riverlands with an incredible amount of clarity — something he has not had before in this story. This level of singular focus makes Daemon very dangerous.
He believes with every fiber of his being that it was Rhaenyra who was always meant to take the throne, and he will stop at nothing to see it happen. For Rhaenyra, the question will be, “How ‘Daemon’ am I willing to become in the pursuit of my goal?”
How much action should viewers expect after the dust settles on the Battle of the Gullet?
This is by far our most action-packed season. The Gullet is huge… but it is only the beginning.
House of the Dragon, Season 3 Premiere, Sunday, June 21, 9/8c, HBO
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