Given its title, it's hardly surprising that Game of Thrones spin-off House of the Dragon features way more dragon action than the original show. With that, the sound designers were tasked with creating a ton of new dragon noises that suited each of the winged beasts' unique personalities – and one of them had the bizarrest of briefs.
"The descriptions that [showrunners] Ryan [Condal] and Miguel [Sapochnik] gave for these characters, for these dragon characters, were never, 'I want the dragon to be like this.' They would describe it in human terms," sound supervisor Al Sirkett recently told Collider.
Daemon Targaryen's dragon Caraxes was, apparently, pitched to Sirkett as having "failed white boy rapper" energy by Sapochnik. In that, he "thinks he's the coolest guy on the block" but in reality, none of the other dragons want anything to do with him.
"Just thinks he's just full of it, he's so fantastic and amazing, but he's not. He's a bit of an idiot. Nobody really likes him. And that was it," Sirkett continued.
Set two centuries before the events of Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon's first chapter centers on the tensions between the Targaryens and the Hightowers, as the former's once all-powerful dominion over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros begins to crumble. Spanning several years, it sees King Viserys Targaryen (Paddy Considine) break tradition and name his daughter Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) as heir to the Iron Throne, much to dismay of his entitled brother Daemon (Matt Smith). Rhaenyra's ascension is complicated, though, when Viserys has a son with the scheming Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke).
During the chat, Sirkett also talked about working with Game of Thrones' dragon designer Paula Fairfield. "Once I'd had her on board, I was not worried at all. I knew that [with] the dragons that the audience was going to believe, and the textures and the ability that she brings to make a character out of all of these different dragons," he said. "There's many more dragons. As she said, there's one episode where there's more dragon sounds than a whole series of Game of Thrones."
House of the Dragon season 2 is aiming for a late spring/early summer release in 2024. While we wait, check out our list of the most exciting new TV shows heading our way.
