The ‘House of the Dragon’ Cast Is Already So Rich, and They’re About to Get Richer (2024)

FAQs

How much do the actors get paid for House of the Dragon? ›

Plus, we know that HBO launched its biggest marketing campaign ever to promote the show (more than $100 million), so it's clearly in the mood to spend money. So yeah: It seems likely that the primary cast is likely making somewhere between $100,000 and $300,000 per episode.

Everyone who was a teenager in House of the Dragon Episode 5 has now been recast in Episode 6. Rhaenyra, Alicent, Laenor, and Laena are all being played by older actors to show they're all grown up now and ready for their own Game of Thrones.

These are the new faces to remember moving forward. With House of the Dragon including one more time jump before Episode 8, the kids on the show will be recast again. The first major recast included leads Rhaenyra (first Milly Alco*ck, then Emma D'Arcy) and Alicent (first Emily Carey, then Olivia Cooke).

Ultimately, key roles in the story were recast so that the adult actors could play more mature versions of their characters. “It's what makes this premium HBO content versus the thing we would have been forced to make at a different outlet,” Condal added.

Milly Alco*ck

She is playing the role of the young Rhaenyra Targaryen in the series. She is 22 years old but has been active since 2014 in the showbiz industry. Reportedly she annually earns $500,000 and this role will just add more to her income accordingly.

Especially when his character, fondly known as the “Sea Snake,” has an admirable history in battle on land and sea. The head of House Velaryon, Lord Corlys is the richest man in Westeros, with the largest navy, thanks to a fortune he's built from navigating the Seven Kingdoms as a seafarer.

Turns out, Rhaenyra and Daemon are endgame, meaning they have a sexually tense relationship, eventually hook up, and get married—which is pretty significant from a power play perspective considering (1) they both want the throne and (2) their Targaryen union is almost sure to guarantee that happens—even though Alicent ...

Jacaerys, Rhaenyra's eldest son, and his two younger brothers have spent their short lives surrounded by whispers that their real father was Ser Harwin Strong.

The romance that has long been teased in “House of the Dragon” is finally official. The seventh episode of HBO's “Game of Thrones” prequel starts with a funeral and ends with the wedding of Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and her uncle Daemon.

Rhaenyra is played by two actors across House of the Dragon's first season - Milly Alco*ck (young) and Emma D'Arcy (older). Without further ado, get to know one of the most important players in House of the Dragon below, including what claim Rhaenyra really has for the Iron Throne.

Who is replacing Rhaenyra Targaryen? ›

Milly Alco*ck and Emily Carey have departed the House of the Dragon franchise, handing over the Rhaenyra and Alicent batons to Emily D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke respectively. Fans who have been loving Alco*ck and Carey's portrayal of the friends-turned-enemies will have truly been gutted.

Milly Alco*ck, who plays young Rhaenyra, is 22. As of the mid-season time jump, Rhaenyra is aged up to 27, then—as of episode 8—to 33.

It isn't explicitly stated in the show, but because we learn after episode six that all three boys have dark brown hair — and despite Rhaenyra and Laenor's matching blond color — it has been strongly implied that they are actually the children of Ser Harwin Strong, the Lord Commander of the City Watch.

In the seventh episode of the blockbuster HBO series, Prince Daemon marries his own niece, Princess Rhaenyra. The incestuous romance had been building for some time. Before a 10-year time jump occurred in the show's sixth epsode, Daemon took a young Rhaenyra to a brothel in King's Land where the two got intimate.

As for Rhaenyra Targaryen, she grew up believing she would rule Westeros. But when the time came, her enemies and family stole the crown from her. She answered with fire and blood and was destroyed by them. So while Rhaenyra may have been the first woman to claim the Iron Throne, she never ruled the Seven Kingdoms.

Beautiful as a child, Rhaenyra was later declared by her uncle, Prince Daemon Targaryen, to be the most beautiful maiden in all the Seven Kingdoms. Rhaenyra never lost weight gained from pregnancies, and she had grown stout and thick of waist at the age of twenty after her third pregnancy.

Princess Rhaenyra and Daenerys are distant relatives, living 200 years and about eight generations apart, as this thorough Targaryen family tree demonstrates.

The moment happens in season 3, episode 4, “And Now His Watch Is Ended,” when Joffrey Lannister is chilling with Margaery Tyrell and giddily explains, “Rhaenyra Targaryen was murdered by her brother, or rather, his dragon. It ate her while her son watched. What's left of her is buried in the crypts right down there.”

The decision to depict the richest family in Westeros as Black came from showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, who acknowledged the frequent criticism Game of Thrones received for its lack of diversity. "The world is very different now than it was 10 years ago when [Game of Thrones] all started.

House Of The Dragon Cast Salary-

Actress Emma D'Arcy, who plays Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, has taken home a salary of $30k for an episode.

Who is the black Targaryen in House of the Dragon? ›

Through the portrayal of House Velaryon, one of the oldest (and wealthiest) houses in Westeros that has a lineage as significant in the Valyrian race as House Targaryen, Black characters are not just pawns to be moved on the chessboard of who takes king or queen.

Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) and Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) finally had sex on House of the Dragon. After teasing their deep connection for weeks, making out in a brothel, and flirting their way through King's Landing, uncle and niece at long last did the dirty.

It was clear that Leana and Laenor had a close relationship, and she likely would not appreciate her uncle choosing this moment to make a statement while her brother grieves. Daemon laughs at this moment because Vaemond is choosing this moment to guilt Rhaenyra for having children with Harwin Strong (Ryan Corr).

Daemon realizes her fears are preventing her from experiencing many of life's pleasures. In a fateful decision that sows the seeds of much of the chaos to come, he takes Rhaenyra's sexual education into his own hands and sneaks her out of the Red Keep to the Street of Silk.

It was rumored that those sons of Rhaenyra's were actually fathered by her lover, Harwin Strong, called "Breakbones". All three were born with brown hair, brown eyes, and features considered "common" such as a pug nose.

As the two dragons struggled in the Battle Above the Gods Eye, Daemon plunged from Caraxes, wielding his sword Dark Sister and stabbing it into Aemond's remaining eye. Both dragons crashed into the Gods Eye, and Vhagar drowned with Aemond's body still chained to the saddle while Caraxes died on the shore.

We last saw her find out the truth in "We Light the Way" that Rhaenyra lost her virginity to Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel).

Joffrey Baratheon spoils Rhaenyra Targaryen's fate on Game of Thrones. As Joffrey tells us, eventually, Rhaenyra's half-brother Aegon Targaryen will feed her to his dragon Sunfyre. She dies as her son, Aegon III, watches. That's the bullet point version.

Sunfyre devoured Rhaenyra in six bites, leaving only her left leg below the shin. Prince Aegon the Younger was forced to watch his mother die, and Elinda Massey allegedly gouged out her eyes in horror.

In 120 AC at the age of thirty-nine, Daemon married again, this time to his niece, Rhaenyra Targaryen, the twenty-three-year-old Princess of Dragonstone.

Are Alicent and Rhaenyra in love? ›

In multiple interviews, Milly Alco*ck and Emily Carey, who portray Rhaenyra and Alicent in the first five episodes of the season, have confirmed that they played their characters as having a romantic connection, not just a close, platonic one.

Alicent Hightower is 14 years old at the start of "House of the Dragon," and Milly Alco*ck was 21 during filming. Just like young Alicent, Rhaenyra is 14 at the start of the show and ages up to almost 18 years old over the course of the first four episodes.

This Rhaenys was about 35 in 10AC when a scorpion bolt struck her dragon Meraxes in the eye sending both dragon and rider down to the ground below. Thing is no one knows whether Rhaenys died that day. Some accounts say she fell to her death, while others say she lived on to be tortured by the local Dornish.

As such, Rhaenyra's baby in House of the Dragon wasn't born with greyscale, but rather a blood-related, Targaryen-specific dragon scale defect sometimes seen in their stillborn babies.

The new king, Aegon, is the son of Viserys and Alicent Hightower, his second wife. Rhaenyra's gender has led to wide disputes concerning her claim to the throne, and many in the Seven Kingdoms believe Aegon, as the firstborn male has more claim than her.

Daemon Targaryen is a polarizing figure on House of the Dragon. His attitude and actions are enough to make him a villain, having made enemies of various people throughout the Seven Kingdoms, including his brother, King Viserys I.

We know that while the two came close, they never actually did the deed. Daemon, thrown off by his lack of ability to shock Rhaenyra, left her to get drunk and pass out. While Rhaenyra did go on to sleep with Criston Cole — the big problem of the episode — Viserys (Paddy Considine) was made more cautious of Daemon.

The duel that became known as the Dance over Harrenhal ended in the deaths of both riders and both dragons over the God's Eye. Daemon was 49 when he died.

Daemon is, of course, younger than Rhaenyra's father Viserys, but he's still significantly older than her: in the books, there's a 16-year age gap between Rhaenyra and Daemon.

Prosthetic designer confirms: the baby was deformed

“When the babe at last came forth, she proved indeed a monster: a stillborn girl, twisted and malformed, with a hole in her chest where her heart should have been and a stubby, scaled tail.

Why is Jon Snow's hair black? ›

Why does Jon Snow have black hair? Because he isn't a “pure-blood” Targaryen: his mother, Lyanna Stark, has the same dark auburn, almost pure black hair as his, thus explaining, more or less, why his hair isn't Targaryen silver.

Rhaenyra has been pregnant with her daughter Visenya since House of the Dragon's latest and last time jump, and it is heartbreaking to see her deal with this loss. The way in which the scene plays out makes it especially disturbing.

After Daemon's first wife dies, he gets together with Laena Velaryon—who was initially suggested as a bride for King Viserys. They have two daughters. Meanwhile, Rhaenyra marries Laena's brother, Laenor Velaryon, and they have several kids. We watched all that happen in last week's time-jump episode.

Daemon strangled Rhaenyra because he felt betrayed by Viserys. “It's a moment that I think is surprising and shocking for Daemon as a character, but I also think it's one of those things that's been set up over the course of the entire season.

Yes they did actually love each other. He definitely loved Rhaenyra that much is clear and I honestly believe he loved her until the end (his death). He wasn't faithful but he did love her more than any other woman he has ever been with.

Rhaenyra Targaryen Takes the Iron Throne, but Only For a Moment. While the Green forces were away from King's Landing, they foolishly left the capital sparsely protected. That allowed Rhaenyra and Daemon to easily take the city, where she sat on the Iron Throne for half-a-year.

Rhaenyra offers a sharp rebuttal in the form that the people of Westeros didn't reject a woman as their potential queen – they rejected Rhaenys specifically. Rhaenyra will not accept her role as anything less than an heir to the throne lightly.

Aegon II Targaryen, also known as 'Aegon the Younger' and later called 'the Unbroken', was the eldest surviving son of Queen Rhaenyra I Targaryen and her second husband Daemon Targaryen, and was the seventh Targaryen monarch to rule Westeros.

Matt Smith, who plays Prince Daemon Targaryen, has taken a salary of $25k for an episode. Actress Olivia Cooke, who plays Lady Alicent Hightower, has taken a salary of $25k for an episode. Actor Steve Toussaint, who plays Lord Corlys Velaryon, has taken a salary of $20k for an episode.

2. House of the Dragon — $20 million per episode. This Game of Thrones spinoff had an estimated budget of $200 million for the whole first season. The cost per episode of House of the Dragon is only $5 million more than the cost of the series finale of Game of Thrones.

Do the Dragons get paid for being on the show? ›

All of the Dragons are paid the same amount, regardless of how long they've been on the show. Deborah Meaden has previously confirmed the pay for all of them is the same, and this has never been an issue. “All Dragons are paid the same,” she said in a TV interview. “We are all upfront about it.”

Netflix, Take Notes: HBO Spent a Mere $20 Million Per Episode on 'Game of Thrones' Prequel. While Netflix and Amazon's series budgets explode, HBO's “House of the Dragon” is introducing a new tactic to the streaming and cable wars: Cost-cutting.

According to a 2017 report by Variety, the five main Game of Thrones cast members made $500,000 per episode for the final two seasons—seasons 7 and 8—Game of Thrones, which paid them each around $6.5 million in total.

While on-camera actors are eligible to receive residuals, the royalties paid out every time something they performed in is re-aired, video game actors are not.

Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister): $1.2 million per episode

As one of Game of Thrones lead characters, it's not surprising that Peter Dinklage earned one of the largest salaries on the show.

Popular on Variety. HBO's “House of the Dragon” cost under $20 million per episode to produce its 10-episode first season, which debuts Aug. 21, a source close to production told Variety. For comparison, “Game of Thrones” cost HBO around $100 million per season.

House of the Dragon box office

Up till now, this HBO series has made a roaring collection of 2.6 Million dollars at the box office!

Since there are only 3 dragons in Game of Thrones, their value must be higher than the F-22 as they are even rarer. So $29 billion divided by 3 left me with a price tag of almost $10 billion for a single dragon.

Generally speaking, for screen work, actors are paid a day rate. If they are needed for more than five days, they are paid a weekly rate. Rates vary if actors are needed for the entirety of the film shoot or the entirety of a television season. Television actors can also be paid per episode.

Each Dragon is working as an individual investor. The Dragons can invest as little or as much of their own money as they want. It is up to the entrepreneur to persuade them to match the required investment or pledge to invest a portion thereof.

What is the most expensive TV show ever? ›

The show was funded by Amazon's Jeff Bezos - the richest man in the world - and it shows. Some $465 million -- $250 million for the rights to the series alone -- went into the making of only eight episodes of the series, making it the most expensive in history.

Vhagar. Vhagar is one of the best dragonriders, Aemond Targaryen's mount, and the biggest dragon in House of the Dragon. She is also the last remaining dragon from the days of Aegon's conquest, and therefore the oldest flying beast on the show.