Milly Alcock Was Faced With Jarring Criticism On HBO’s House Of The Dragon Set

How, exactly, did season 2 of “House of the Dragon” find a way to get Milly Alcock back to Westeros? It all comes down to Daemon, who, after the time jump — and after Laenor fakes his own death to live freely — marries Emmy D’Arcy’s Rhaenyra and lives as her consort. In season 2, Rhaenyra, angry at her husband for a horrifying murder plot he orchestrated that left two of Alicent’s grandchildren dead in a brutal fashion, orders him to take Harrenhal for her forces … and before long, Daemon discovers the dreary old castle might be just a smidge haunted. In the season’s third episode, “The Burning Mill,” Daemon dreams of a young Rhaenyra (Alcock in D’Arcy’s stead) stitching the decapitated head of one of those aforementioned grandchildren, the young Prince Jaehaerys, back onto his tiny body. Then, in the episode that follows, “The Red Dragon and the Gold,” Daemon once again sees young Rhaenyra in his dreams; this time, she’s in front of the Iron Throne, and he beheads her after she accuses him of treason.

Advertisement

After “The Burning Mill” aired, showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal spoke to Entertainment Weekly and said that he was proud that the series managed to keep Alcock’s return a massive secret … and that, despite whatever an executive said to her previously, she was happy to come back. “It was very easy in terms of will,” Condal recalled. “We were excited about the prospect. Milly was eager to come back and everybody was excited to have her back.”

“She’s very busy, so it was a tricky thing to navigate around the schedule, but we essentially had her in for a couple of days right at the start of production,” Condal also remembered; “House of the Dragon” had to work around Alcock’s shooting schedule on James Gunn’s “Superman,” which features her as Supergirl. “I think one of our greatest feats was keeping that a secret all the way through, given the fact that it happened right at the beginning,” Condal added.

Advertisement

“Instead of warfare or dragons or images of horror, it was really more of him being haunted by these people who he had done wrong by in his past, particularly young Rhaenyra,” Condal clarified as to why the show needed Alcock to return for these two cameos. “That’s the girl who took his claim, not elder Rhaenyra, played by Emma D’Arcy. It’s that version of Rhaenyra that removed him as the heir to the throne, and then was named heir and took his claim. As you’ll see his story at Harrenhal unfold, there is an element of Daemon having to reckon with his past and choices that he’s made and things that he’s done.”

“House of the Dragon,” including Alcock’s central performance and cameos, is currently streaming on HBO Max … but we likely won’t see season 3 for some time now.