Second season of "House of the Dragon" It took them six months to build the throne - and 2500 swords
Do you know how long the set alone takes? In the documentary "The House That Dragons Built", the crew talks about the unimaginable challenges on the set of the hit series.
No time? blue News summarizes for you
- You only realize the scale of a major TV production like "House of the Dragon" when it is set in a time frame.
- The makers needed around six months for the throne and ten weeks for the clothes.
- In the documentary "The House That Dragons Built", the crew talk about the long working days and the fascination of "House of the Dragon".
- The hit series of the year "House of the Dragon" and the documentary "The House That Dragons Built" are available on blue Premium.
In the documentary "The House That Dragons Built", actors, producers and set builders talk about the hardships - and the honor - of building a set for "House of the Dragon".
In the very first episode, they talk about the iron throne: As in "Game of Thrones", it should remain in the audience's memory. It represents the power of the Targaryen dynasty and shows "all the swords of the conquered".
Originally, HBO wanted to computer-generate the throne with a "carpet" of swords spreading out from the actual seat. However, a concept engineer says that this "melted" his computer. So a practical solution had to be found: Peter Lee, a set designer at "HOTD", says he wrapped plain steel rods in plaster casts: "That gave the whole thing that melted look."
The iron throne, which in the books consists of "thousands of swords", took a crew of six people around six months to build. They bound around 2500 swords with plaster.
Nine meter tall dragons and the detailed clothes
To understand how much work goes into a set, you simply have to see the documentary.
Among other things, the designers talk about the skull of Balerion - also known as "The Black Dread". This dragon was bigger than the ones you know from "Game of Thrones". The head alone was nine meters long and was specially built for "House of the Dragon".
The clothes of the Targaryen royal family also feature incredible detail. Rhaenyra's dress in particular was sewn together by a small team of tailors within ten weeks. According to their own statements, they were inspired by Byzantine fashion.
One of the most expensive pieces of the whole shoot
Speaking of fashion and clothes: of course, the knights' armor is also part of it. As various actors in "The House That Dragons Built" tell us, they packed around 40 stunt people into armor for the House Targaryen competition. Armor that had to be forged for this one shoot, of course.
What's more, it was supposed to look decadent; competition armor looks more ostentatious than normal "war armor". The designer combined elements of armor from the Orient, Persia and Greece.
The armor of Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) took the longest to make. It took 16 weeks to design and ten weeks to forge.
Matt Smith himself commented on his armor: "They want to make you as comfortable as possible, but I mean, it's armor, it's heavy. That was a mental challenge to wear that for days and weeks."
Covid and the writers' strike
In general, the production of "House of the Dragon" was no easy undertaking - in addition to the months of work for the crew. The first season was shot under the strictest Covid measures. This was particularly difficult in scenes where a lot of people had to be in the frame.
The makers used so-called "sprites", a technology in which, for example, a large audience at the above-mentioned House Targaryen competition was individually built into the picture. 15 extras were filmed from several perspectives and then digitally stitched together to form a large mass of people.
The second season was also affected by the Hollywood writers' strike, which slowed down production. Incidentally, the cost of the first season was around 200 million dollars. As some elements were naturally reused in the second season, the budget could be kept relatively low: 20 million had to be paid on top.