House of the Dragon Season 2 Just Released Two Dueling Trailers
Choose a side.
Despite how action-packed House of the Dragon Season 1 was, spanning decades, marriages, and deaths, in a way it’s all been a prelude to what’s finally happening in Season 2. The Dance of the Dragons, a kingdom-dividing Civil War between Alicent and the Greens and Rhaenyra and the Blacks, is finally beginning. And HBO is going all in on showing the two sides.
Ahead of the season’s Season 2 premiere, HBO has released two dueling trailers for House of the Dragon: the Green Trailer, showing the perspective of “The Greens,” led by Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke); and the Black Trailer, showing the perspective of “The Blacks,” led by Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy). Both trailers reveal just what’s ahead in this monumental war, and it looks like nothing we’ve seen before: dragon dogfights, childhood friends at odds, and more platinum wigs than ever. Check out both trailers below.
Both trailers show different footage of the upcoming season, with the Green Trailer showing Queen Alicent Hightower and her father placing their support behind her son, Aegon II, whom they believe to be the rightful king. “You have no idea the sacrifices that were made to put you on that throne,” Alicent solemnly tells her son, who seems all a little eager to go to war with the Blacks.
Meanwhile, in the Black Trailer, Rhaenyra is seething with rage over losing the throne after her father declared her heir, and her soldiers all follow her with the same righteous fury. Still, as the war reaches a new fever pitch, Rhaenyra expresses regret, opining, “I fear what I’ve begun.” Though the two trailers show both perspectives, and urge audiences to “choose a side,” the sympathy feels slightly in favor of the Blacks. Still, just by virtue of releasing these two trailers with two perspectives, House of the Dragon is announcing a major departure from Game of Thrones — no longer is there a clear hero-villain dynamic, now there’s good reason to root for either side. It’s the kind of morally gray storytelling that the franchise has always aspired to.
The trailers are amping up everything we’ve seen before. Game of Thrones may have included three dragons, and House of the Dragon Season 1 introduced a handful more, but showrunner Ryan Condal teased The Hollywood Reporter in March 2023 that Season 2 would include five new dragons on top of those. With that in mind, it’s likely that Season 2 will span years much like Season 1, but luckily the main cast won’t change. Civil wars are harsh, with brother turned against brother, and it seems that it won’t be resolved cleanly or quickly. As Rhaenys said in the teaser trailer, “There is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin.”
It’s Targaryens vs. Hightowers in House of the Dragon Season 2.
House of the Dragon has always been building to this war — anyone who read the books saw it simmering throughout Season 1. But now it’s finally here, will the series be able to do the spectacle justice and replicate the epic battle scenes from Game of Thrones? These trailers only gave us a brief glance, but it looks like it will not only match those scenes but outdo them. After all, this time everyone’s got a dragon.
