House of the Dragon FAQs: How to watch the Game of Thrones prequel and what you need to know
House of the Dragon starts on Sky Atlantic at 9pm
House of the Dragon is set two centuries before the events of Game Of Thrones and we meet the ancestors of Daenerys Targaryen. The show documents the beginnings of the Targaryen civil war, known as the Dance of the Dragons. Based on George RR Martin’s Fire & Blood, it tells the story of House Targaryen.
Paddy Considine plays King Viserys Targaryen, while Matt Smith is Prince Daemon Targaryen, heir to the throne. Olivia Cooke stars as Alicent Hightower and Rhys Ifans plays her on-screen father and hand of the king, Otto Hightower. Also in the show are Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Sonoya Mizuno, and Fabien Frankel.
Apart from the Iron Throne itself, probably not, but some names might ring a bell. A few characters will sound familiar - the Targaryens were fond of family names so the King in House of the Dragon shares a name with Daenerys’ late older bother, Viserys. Plus, there's no denying the familiar white-blonde hair of Daenerys' family.
The first episode of House Of The Dragon airs on Sky Atlantic at 9pm tonight. If you can’t wait until then, the episodes will also air at 2am each week, so you could stay up late to catch it or set it to record. Alternatively, the series also streams on NOW, and is available from 2am each Monday.
Hopefully. House of the Dragon has an average audience score of 89% of Rotton Tomatoes while IMDB gives it a score of 9.0 out of 10. The Guardian gave it four stars, saying it is “every bit as great as its predecessor in its heyday”. However, the New York Times says something isn’t quite right about the new programme. “The juice has been squeezed out of it,” they suggest.
