The second season of HBO's Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, is now shooting, and four new cast members have been added to the already stacked ensemble.
Deadline reports that Simon Russell Beale, Freddie Fox, Gayle Rankin and Abubakar Salim have all joined the series in key roles, and fans of George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood should be very familiar with their characters.
Beale will play Ser Simon Strong, Castellan of Harrenhal and great-uncle to Lord Larys; Fox will portray Ser Gwayne Hightower, son of Otto Hightower, brother to Queen Alicent, and uncle to King Aegon, Queen Helaena, and Prince Aemond; Rankin has been cast as Alys Rivers, a healer and resident of Harrenhal; Salim will portray Alyn of Hull, a sailor in the Velaryon fleet who served in the Stepstones campaign.
We recently learned that House of the Dragon season 2 will consist of 8 episodes - 2 fewer than the critically-acclaimed debut season, which concluded last November.
Apparently, "a portion of the plot originally intended for Season 2, including a major battle," is now being saved for season 3. If we had to hazard a guess, this confrontation is likely the culmination of the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons, which will see two major characters clash in a mid-air skirmish.