'House of the Dragon' 's Gavin Spokes Says 'GoT' Fandom Will Either 'Love' or 'Hate' the New Prequel Series

Mar. 15, 2025

Photo: CHRIS DELMAS/AFP via Getty

OneHouse of the Dragonactor is predicting thatGame of Thronesfans may find themselves divided on the new prequel series from HBO when it finally airs.

Gavin Spokes, who plays Lyonel Strong in the series, told PEOPLE: “Some are going to love, and some are going to hate” the new show, which follows the Targaryen dynasty as it plunges into civil war 200 years beforeGame of Thronesbegins.

“You can’t please all the people all the time,” Spokes said at Wednesday’s Los Angeles premiere for the new series. “I think we have just tried to put as much work and love into it as we can. If people aren’t gonna like it then that’s their opinion.”

Ollie Upton/HBO

“[Strong] always believes that he is trying to do the right thing,” Spokes told PEOPLE of his character. “Whether he is or not is for us to judge but he’s quite a decent person.”

At the premiere, Spokes told PEOPLE that the scale of production onHouse of the Dragon"was even bigger" than he expected when he first walked on to the set.

“It’s not a green screen. They built a full castle,” he said. “[Series co-creator Ryan Condal] was showing me around, like this is the chamber, and I said, ‘Wouldn’t it have been cheaper to buy a castle?’ They built a whole castle north of London, and it’s extraordinary. And then extras arrive in beautiful costumes and amazing props, and you are sitting in Westeros.”

While Spokes told PEOPLE that the new series may prove divisive forGame of Thronesfans, he also said “they’re gonna get a little bit more meat on the bones” with the prequel show.

“I don’t want to sound derogatory toThronesat all because I thought it was an incredible series,” Spokes told PEOPLE. “But there’s a slow build in the show. And it’s deliberate. Particularly to find out about who those characters really are.”

“I was nervous at the beginning because these characters are like my kids and when you give your kids to people for adoption you wonder how they will be treated,” Martin, 73, told the 6,000 enthusiastic fans gathered for the panel about having his source material adapted again.

“But I’ve been very very fortunate here,” Martin said. “Our cast is amazing, I hadn’t had a chance to meet them with COVID, I didn’t have a chance to visit the set but I’ve seen nine of 10 episodes and it’s pretty amazing. I’m really very happy.”

What fans know about the plot ofHouse of Dragonsso far is that King Viserys I Targaryen (Considine) named his daughter, Princess Rhaenyra (Alcock), his sole heir to the Iron Throne. But, when Rhaenyra’s childhood best friend Alicent Hightower (Cooke) marries her father in later years and conceives a son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), the dynasty is split in two.

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House of the Dragonpremieres Aug. 21 on HBO.

source: people.com