SPOILER ALERT: This story contains major spoilers for HBO’s “House of the Dragon” Season 2 finale, titled “The Queen Who Ever Was,” now streaming on Max.
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For “House of the Dragon” fans who watch the show, but haven’t read George R.R. Martin’s “Fire & Blood,” there were certainly many questions left unanswered by the end of the Season 2 finale. But for those in the audience who’ve also read the source material on which the HBO series is based, there was at least one extra big query that was top of mind: Why didn’t Queen Rhaenyra’s son Jace die?
During the last installment of the show’s second season, titled “The Queen Who Ever Was,” Prince Jace Velaryon (Harry Collett) works alongside his mother Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and his wife Baela Targaryen (Bethany Antonia) to prepare for the three new dragon riders they’ve brought into the fold to join them for the war ahead.
In the next plot point in the book, Jace leads these dragonseeds on Team Black against the Greens and their allies in a dragon vs. ship fight, dubbed the Battle of the Gullet — and Jace dies in the process. But the “House of the Dragon” finale does not include this battle, or any other, nor did Jace die.
Instead, it ends with a montage of the Greens and the Blacks, including Jace, all preparing for war. Rhaenyra has been promised by Alicent (Olivia Cooke) that she has her go-ahead to take back King’s Landing and the Iron Throne in three days, once Prince Regent Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) is far away in battle.
With Jace dying during the Battle of the Gullet in “Fire & Blood,” but not before leading his side to victory, many viewers familiar with the books thought we were going to see another season end with one of Rhaenyra’s sons dying on dragon back. Even Harry Collett — the actor who plays Jace! — thought all season he was set to be a goner.
That is, until the day of the table read of the Season 2 finale script, when he faced the “House of the Dragon” cast and showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal.
“I did think this would be it for me and Jace,” Collett told Variety . “And it’s always that awkward moment of going to the script reading going, ‘Oh, I don’t know if this is the time, and am I gonna have to do this in front of everyone?’ But it got to the point where we read the last episode in the script read, and it was just a surprise. I went up to Ryan, and I was like, ‘Dude, I thought this was it? I thought I was gonna die!’
“I said to Ryan, ‘I thought this was my time.’ And he said, ‘Mate, I would have called you!’ You get something called ‘the death call,’ so you don’t have to do it at the script read in front of everybody, which I think is very nice.”
Collett adds: “So I was just stressing for no reason, but I’m so thankful that I’ve got to last a whole other season. And if I die, I die — I’m thankful to be in it anyway.”
But now that “House of the Dragon” has been renewed for Season 3, and Condal and the team are working on the scripts for those episodes, has Collett gotten that “death call” to warn him that book fate is coming back around?
“We’ll have to wait and see for that, won’t we? The death call stays between me and me only — if and when I get it.”
See more from Variety ‘s interview with Collett below.
I know some cast members have read “Fire & Blood,” and others choose not to. Have you read it? Are you aware of what Jace’s death is like?
Some cast members have read the books all the way through, and others haven’t at all. And I’m one of those people that have done the in between, where I’ve read synopses. So I do know what happens, but the book is a bunch of rumors, basically, put into one massive book. So things can change, as they have in the show compared to the book.
But my reaction to Jace’s fate from the books is I’m quite happy with it. I feel like it’s quite a heroic death. I’m not just getting stabbed or poisoned. It’s a death in battle, which I think everybody wants or wishes for.
How did you and Emma D’Arcy approach evolving Jace’s character in Season 2, where he takes on a much more adult role after Luke dies, and is now having deeper conversations with Rhaenyra and offering his own ideas as her heir?
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Obviously, me and Emma and Jace and Rhaenyra get a lot more time together this season, just to show the nitty gritty of their mother-and-son relationship. And I like how Jace is more involved this season in the politics of it all. He came up with the dragonseed idea, and he has put forward more ideas. The majority of the Black council, they’re just shouting at Rhaenyra, and not really working with her. With Jace, he’s in a position where he has the perfect opportunity to speak to Rhaenyra on a deeper level, where others wouldn’t get the opportunity to do that. The conversations I had with Emma were, “We’re in a fantasy show, but how can we make this as real as possible?” We discussed having these mother-and-son conversations where Rhaenyra is sort of like, “Oh, no, you can’t go. You’re too young.” And it’s the classic 16-year-old, “Oh, you’re not old enough to do that.” Having those real conversations, apart from just it being completely fantasy.
Jace wants to get revenge for what happened to his little brother Luke. He wants to be more involved. He wants to be a mini Daemon, I always say, as that’s the only predominant father figure that he has had through the last few years. We wanted to make sure it just felt very real. And I’m just so glad that Jace isn’t just always in the corner leaning on his sword, and he’s actually doing something this season. It makes me feel proud of the character, because he has something to do with this whole journey — which is how it should be.
By the end of the season, where does Jace stand on the situation with the dragonseeds and his own feelings about being a bastard?
It’s an awkward one, really, because the dragonseed idea was his idea. But he believes that, because he is a bastard, and he knows that — and obviously with that conversation he had with Rhaenyra — the only thing that’s separating himself from the other bastards is that he has a dragon. And now that these other bastards are coming in and taking the dragons, that is sort of threatening Jace in a way of legitimacy. And it’s scaring him because his future in his eyes is, he will sit the throne, but what if he sits the throne and everyone is just looking down on him, because he’s the one who put a load of bastards on the dragons?
I think he just is constantly beating himself up about that. I feel like he knows it’s good that we have people on those unknown dragons, and that they’re going to do something. But the fact that he’s responsible and that people could possibly look down on him because of that — he’s just going to beat himself up about it. And it’s going to send his stress levels through the roof, as well as all the other stuff that he’s dealing with currently.
Will we see more of Jace and Cregan Stark’s friendship — a fan favorite from the book! — in Season 3?
I would love for there to be more of Jace and Cregan, purely because of the fact we only had one long scene together. I feel like there’s a lot we can do with that. I really enjoyed doing it with Tom Taylor. But we’ll have to wait and see. And if I did know anything, I would, sadly, not be able to tell you. But I hope so.
Have you seen the Jace mewing memes popping up on social media this season? If so, how do you feel about that trend?
It’s funny to me when I see it, so I don’t take anything from it negatively.
There’s also plenty of mewing memes for Ewan Mitchell’s Aemond, and several comparing Jace and Aemond’s facial expressions this season. Do you have an opinion on which one of you has a better look?
I think we’re both great, to be honest. I think Ewan’s rocking his look right now. As much as I dislike Aemond, I very much love Ewan dearly — so I’ll give Ewan the win.
Speaking of looks, Jace’s hair is very different in Season 2, going from short and straight to longer and curlier. And with the curls, it’s a much Strong-er look as well. What led to that change?
Nice pun there. In Season 1, I was cast quite quickly, and I had short hair and there wasn’t enough time to grow out my hair before I started shooting — a wig was the only option. And they also didn’t have time to make me a wig, so it was kind of a thing of just getting one out of the cupboard and putting it on me. To be honest, I couldn’t rock that wig in Season 1 very well. We had conversations early on as soon as they put that wig on me, “OK, you need to start growing your hair out for Season 2.” So I didn’t have a haircut for probably about a year and a half. And I had this One Direction-Harry Styles hair going on, where it was really long. And I was like, I really hope they use my hair now, because I’ve gone through all this. I literally tried out seven shampoos.
This hair care is all new to me; I’ve never done it before. So I was really hoping for them to actually stick to their word, and use it. They cut the majority of it off, which I was really happy about because that in the summer was just dreadful. And Ros, who is in the hair and makeup team, put together a mood board to show to Ryan to pitch it to him. And it was just loads of Jon Snow pictures, which I thought was really cool, because I think they were trying to make me look like Jon Snow when I was on the Wall, which I think is really, really cool.
But I’m super happy we’ve got to use my real hair, and it saves me 45 minutes in the makeup chair now in the morning, which is great. So I’m never going to complain.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
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