The place does the story decide up this season on HBO’s fantasy epic “Home of the Dragon”?
“So,” the actor Tom Glynn-Carney advised a reporter on Monday evening on the Season 2 premiere at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom, all the things “hits the fan.”
His character within the “Sport of Thrones” prequel, the newly topped King Aegon II Targaryen, holds a grip on the throne that’s tenuous at greatest. His brother has simply killed their nephew in what may greatest be described as dying by dragon chomp. And his sister Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen is getting ready to going nuclear — as Targaryens are inclined to do — doubtless with extra dragon chomping.
At the same time as Mr. Glynn-Carney, Matt Smith and different “Dragon” actors laid out the violence in retailer for the brand new season — which returns June 16 — the present’s impending civil conflict stood in stark distinction to the night’s cocktails and joviality, with not a single silvery wig in sight.
Some actors have struggled to acknowledge one another with out them, stated Phia Saban, whose character, Queen Helaena Targaryen, performs a important position in an early episode. (There have been 114 wigs used this season, HBO’s chief government Casey Bloys stated on the premiere, and — again to the dragon chomping — 33 gallons of pretend blood.)
The evening was additionally a victory lap for a dangerous spinoff that had early hopes of residing as much as its popular culture juggernaut of a predecessor. “Dragon” averaged, in keeping with HBO, round 29 million viewers every episode in its first season — numbers that aren’t removed from the information damaged by “Thrones.”
“The most important factor that we had coming into Season 2 was simply understanding that we had our viewers and that they trusted us,” the showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal stated in an interview on the inexperienced carpet, “and that we simply needed to now repay on what they have been anticipating.”
Among the actors dressed in keeping with the season’s color-coded rivalry, which has been performed up within the present’s advertising and marketing. Staff Black for the Targaryens aligned with Rhaenyra — performed by Emma D’Arcy, who wore a rhinestone-covered black Celine jacket — and Staff Inexperienced for the Hightowers and Targaryens supporting Aegon’s declare. (Mr. Glynn-Carney’s velvet swimsuit was a deep pine.)
Olivia Cooke, whose character, Queen Alicent Hightower, typically wears her home’s emerald hues, opted as a substitute for a cerulean Loewe robe: “I’m bored of inexperienced now,” she stated.
Ms. Saban paid homage one other means, with a buoyant robin’s egg bubble of a Stella McCartney gown. “I sort of really feel like a dragon egg,” she stated on the carpet, giving a little bit twirl.
On the after-party, within the shadow of an enormous Thronesian tree with blood-red leaves, forged members mingled with greater than 450 visitors, a mixture of workers and executives from HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery alongside a smattering of actors and influencers.
Ms. Cooke spoke in a single nook of the ballroom with the actor Justin Theroux. He was there to help his pal Clare Kilner, a director on the present. The actress Emilia Jones, from “CODA,” slipped in late sporting a brand new mullet. (The timing and her hair, she stated, may very well be attributed to a brand new HBO crime drama collection she is filming alongside Fabien Frankel, one other “Dragon” actor who performs Ser Criston Cole.)
Swerve Strickland, an expert wrestler, carried a blindingly embellished All Elite Wrestling championship belt over his shoulder all through the evening. A few of his personal efficiency in competitors, he stated, has been impressed by the present: “I sort of pull lots of issues,” he stated, including, “lots of the story and character improvement are what I do within the ring, too.”
“I used to be a foul man for some time,” he added, noting that his character feels much like Mr. Smith’s morally grey Daemon Targaryen. “Now I’m sort of switching over, however I nonetheless have bad-guy components.”
An extended line of attendees gathered beside a duplicate of the Iron Throne itself, ready to take a photograph surrounded by heaps of swords.
Close by, a desk stacked with slices of pizza performed up the upcoming onscreen battles with a extra acquainted New York rivalry: Would visitors choose Roberta’s Pizza and its Calabrian chile “Slice of the Seven Kingdoms”? Or John’s of Bleecker Avenue’s cherry pepper and ricotta choices?
(There have been 60 giant pizzas available, these working the ovens stated — John True, a supervisor at Roberta’s and an enormous “Thrones” fan, added that he had eagerly volunteered to work the occasion on his break day.)
The night’s specialty cocktails added to the fiery theme, together with a tequila-based concoction with jalapeños and, after all, a dragon fruit lemonade.
There was no signal, nonetheless, of any Negroni Sbagliatos.
