After co-starring in HBO’s The Outsider and The Third Day, English actor Paddy Considine has been cast as the lead on the network’s Game of Thrones prequel series House of the Dragon, Collider has confirmed.
Based on George R.R. Martin‘s book Fire & Blood, the show is set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and focuses on the Targaryen clan. Considine will play King Viserys Targaryen, who is chosen by the lords of Westeros to succeed the Old King, Jaehaerys Targaryen, at the Great Council at Harrenhal. Viserys is a kind and decent man who only wishes to honor his grandfather’s legacy, but good men do not necessarily make for the greatest of kings.
Martin co-created House of the Dragon with Ryan Condal, who wrote the pilot script that landed a straight-to-series order. Condal will also serve as co-showrunner alongside Game of Thrones veteran Miguel Sapochnik, who will direct the pilot as well as additional episodes. All three of them will executive produce alongside Vince Gerardis and Sara Lee Hess, the latter of whom has joined Condal as a writer on the new series after working on another GoT prequel starring Naomi Watts that is not moving forward.
The first season of House of the Dragon is expected to consist of 10 episodes, and at some point the show will tackle the Dance of Dragons, which is the Targaryen civil war that ripped apart Westeros and is occasionally referenced in Game of Thrones. Other characters being cast include King Viserys’ chosen heir, Princess Rhaenyra, as well as her half-brother, Aegon II; her uncle, Prince Daemon; and her stepmother, Queen Alicent Hightower.
