The place does the story choose up this season on HBO’s fantasy epic “Home of the Dragon”?
“So,” the actor Tom Glynn-Carney informed a reporter on Monday evening on the Season 2 premiere at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom, the whole lot “hits the fan.”
His character within the “Recreation 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 might greatest be described as dying by dragon chomp. And his sister Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen is getting ready to going nuclear — as Targaryens are likely to do — possible 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 struggle 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, mentioned Phia Saban, whose character, Queen Helaena Targaryen, performs a essential position in an early episode. (There have been 114 wigs used this season, HBO’s chief government Casey Bloys mentioned 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, based on HBO, round 29 million viewers every episode in its first season — numbers that aren’t removed from the data damaged by “Thrones.”
“The largest factor that we had coming into Season 2 was simply realizing that we had our viewers and that they trusted us,” the showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal mentioned in an interview on the inexperienced carpet, “and that we simply needed to now repay on what they had been anticipating.”
A number of the actors dressed based on the season’s color-coded rivalry, which has been performed up within the present’s advertising and marketing. Group Black for the Targaryens aligned with Rhaenyra — performed by Emma D’Arcy, who wore a rhinestone-covered black Celine jacket — and Group Inexperienced for the Hightowers and Targaryens supporting Aegon’s declare. (Mr. Glynn-Carney’s velvet go well with was a deep pine.)
Olivia Cooke, whose character, Queen Alicent Hightower, typically wears her home’s emerald hues, opted as an alternative for a cerulean Loewe robe: “I’m bored of inexperienced now,” she mentioned.
Ms. Saban paid homage one other manner, with a buoyant robin’s egg bubble of a Stella McCartney gown. “I type of really feel like a dragon egg,” she mentioned on the carpet, giving slightly twirl.
On the after-party, within the shadow of a large Thronesian tree with blood-red leaves, solid members mingled with greater than 450 company, 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 assist his good friend 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 mentioned, 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, knowledgeable 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 mentioned, has been impressed by the present: “I type of pull a variety of issues,” he mentioned, including, “a variety of the story and character improvement are what I do within the ring, too.”
“I used to be a nasty man for some time,” he added, noting that his character feels much like Mr. Smith’s morally grey Daemon Targaryen. “Now I’m type of switching over, however I nonetheless have bad-guy components.”
A protracted line of attendees gathered beside a reproduction 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 company choose Roberta’s Pizza and its Calabrian chile “Slice of the Seven Kingdoms”? Or John’s of Bleecker Road’s cherry pepper and ricotta choices?
(There have been 60 massive pizzas available, these working the ovens mentioned — John True, a supervisor at Roberta’s and a large “Thrones” fan, added that he had eagerly volunteered to work the social gathering on his day without work.)
The night’s specialty cocktails added to the fiery theme, together with a tequila-based concoction with jalapeños and, in fact, a dragon fruit lemonade.
There was no signal, nonetheless, of any Negroni Sbagliatos.
