HOUSE OF THE DRAGON Star Teases Season 3’s Massive Opening Battle: “It’s Going to Be Huge”
Fans of House of the Dragon are finally going to get the massive sea-and-dragon battle they’ve been waiting for, and according to cast member Abubakar Salim, the show is going all out for it.
Salim, who plays Alyn of Hull in the hit HBO fantasy series, recently hyped up the opening battle of Season 3 on X, teasing just how intense the production became while filming the long-awaited Battle of the Gullet.
He wrote: “Again, this battle was an absolute mad one to film. The training done for it all and the choreography was intense. It's going to be huge.”
That’s exactly what fans want to hear after learning the battle had been pushed out of Season 2. Originally, the explosive conflict was supposed to close out the previous season before HBO reduced the episode count from 10 episodes down to eight.
Instead of rushing it, the production shifted the battle to the opening of Season 3 so the creative team could fully realize the scale of what George R.R. Martin wrote in Fire & Blood.
For those familiar with the source material, the Battle of the Gullet is one of the biggest clashes in the entire Dance of the Dragons storyline. The conflict pits Team Black against Team Green in a brutal fight involving fleets, dragons, and complete chaos across the sea and sky.
The battle sees the Triarchy, an alliance from the Free Cities fighting for the Greens, collide with House Velaryon forces on the water while dragons unleash destruction overhead. Since Alyn of Hull is closely tied to Lord Corlys Velaryon, it makes sense Salim’s character will be right in the middle of the action.
HBO executive Francesca Orsi previously explained why the series needed more time to tackle the sequence properly, saying: “I don't think we had the time at that point to do what it is that we've achieved now this season. It's just so massive, we needed the time to build it.”
That comment alone paints a pretty exciting picture of what viewers are about to get. House of the Dragon has already delivered some impressive dragon warfare, but the Battle of the Gullet is on another level entirely.
Between the naval combat, large-scale destruction, and dragon fights ripping through the skies, this could easily become the biggest action sequence the franchise has attempted since Game of Thrones wrapped up.
Set roughly 200 years before Game of Thrones, the series follows the devastating Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons. Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke lead the cast as rivals Rhaenyra Targaryen and Alicent Hightower, whose fractured relationship helped ignite the conflict tearing Westeros apart.
With Season 3 opening on such a massive event, HBO clearly isn’t easing viewers back into the story. It sounds like the series is returning with fire, blood, and a whole lot of dragon-fueled destruction.
House of the Dragon Season 3 premieres on HBO on June 21.