“We’ve flipped the chessboard over and spilled the pieces on the ground.”
Warning: This article contains spoilers from theHouse of the Dragonseason 1 finale.
“Season 1 was setting the table for a very bloody feast to come,” he tells EW.
Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy) surveys her war table in ‘House of the Dragon’ season 1 finale.Ollie Upton / HBO
“How do all those react?
That’s the story that we tell in season 2 and beyond.”
The finale then sticks with the Blacks, Rhaenyra and her supporters.
Emma D’Arcy as Rhaenyra Targaryen in the ‘House of the Dragon’ season 1 finale.Ollie Upton / HBO
We’re not gonna suddenly pull away from telling their stories.
“That’s the nature of this thing,” he says.
“It’s incredibly messy and complex and gray, and it’s one family fighting each other.
This is not Starks vs. Lannisters.
This is an extended family doing battle with one another.
So it’s harder to find those entrenched sides.”
Condal understands why people want to look for someone to root for.
“It’s an escapist fantasy a good one, I hope,” he notes.
“But people are looking for the light side and the dark side, the Jedi and the Sith.
They’re looking for the elves and the orcs.
I loveLord of the Rings.
It’s just simply not that kind of story.”
