HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Star Olivia Cooke Addresses Backlash: "Some of the Fans Have Been F-ing Horrible to Our Cast"

Olivia Cooke, who plays Alicent Hightower in HBO’s House of the Dragon, is speaking out about the negativity that she and her fellow cast members have had to deal with since the second season aired.

While the Game of Thrones prequel continues to be a major success for HBO, not all fan reactions have been kind.

In a recent conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Cooke explained how some interactions with viewers have crossed the line.

"They’ll take a picture, and then they’ll be like: ‘We HATE your character!’ Sometimes people do say that with a lot of malice."

That frustration only deepened when she described how cast members have been hit with toxic comments online. Cooke said:

“Some of the fans have been f*cking horrible to our cast. It makes me really angry that we’re then supposed to just bow down and [pay] obeisance to these people that only want to say the most debased, hate-filled things.

“But thankfully, we’ve all experienced it in our own way, and we’ve got each other, which doesn’t make it right."

The second season of House of the Dragon was a point of contention for some viewers, with complaints about pacing and a lack of narrative drive. But Cooke and the rest of the team remain unfazed as they move toward the already confirmed third season.

Cooke previously teased what’s ahead, saying:

"The first two [episodes] were essentially supposed to be our finale last year. So you can just imagine coming into that sort of energy. It's bigger and more ferocious than ever before."

No release date has been announced yet, but with Cooke promising that season three will start with a "bang," it sounds like fans are in for some truly fiery drama when Westeros returns.