The cast and crew of House of The Dragon describe how the tournament scene came to life

Game of Thrones prequel House of The Dragon is finally here. The first episode of the story of a civil war that almost decimated the Targaryens and their dragons was very well-received, giving us a taste of war and destruction in the first episode itself. Just as George R. R. Martin said, the seeds of war are planted during times of peace, and the Tourney in episode 1 of House of The Dragon showed just that.

However, filming the tournament was a very lengthy process, one that took weeks of preparation. The showrunners and the crew explained how they got the set ready for action:

Ryan Condal (Showrunner): “One of the challenges of telling a story about a time where there’s great decadence and a period of very long peace is how do you create drama out of that. And we really knew a tournament felt like a great way to do that.”

Angus Bickerton (Special Effects Supervisor): “When I first read about the tournament, I thought, “Oh it’s going to be in a field with some trees around it, and maybe there’ll be some flags.” 

Jim Clay (Production Designer): “I told the guys about the tournament very early on because I wanted to bring something stronger and more powerful to support the Targaryen dynasty.”

Miguel Sapochnik (Showrunner): “Jim produced this drawing of, basically, the Colosseum, and I said, “Really, Jim? Have you got the money to build that?” He goes, “Yeah, yeah.” Should never have listened to it. [Laughs]”

Condal: “As soon as we saw the mirrored, half-moon shape that he did, it was glorious. We saw a real need for it. They would of course have royal tournament grounds. It would be in the city surrounded by buildings. It just made sense.”

What did you think of the Tourney in episode one? Tell us in the comments below!

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