HBO Shares Emma D’Arcy’s Traumatic First Scene As Rhaenyra On ‘House Of The Dragon’

We have just begun to really settle into the blonde-haired cast of House Of The Dragon, but there will be some major changes before next week’s highly-anticipated new episode.

After a tense episode five, two main cast members, Milly Alcock who plays young Rhaenyra Targaryen, and Emily Carey, who plays young Alicent Hightower, will no longer take on their respective roles as the characters will age up for the rest of the season. Emma D’Arcy will be taking over Rhaenyra while Olivia Cooke will step in for Alicent.

Ahead of episode six, HBO revealed the first scene, which features D’Arcy as Rheanyra just moments after giving birth to a baby boy with husband Laenor Velaryon, now played by John Macmillan. Rheanyra is presumably bringing her newborn son to see Queen Alicent. Leanor exhaustingly states “I’m glad I am not a woman” after walking his wife through the crowds of people. So valid of him!

— HBO (@HBO) September 20, 2022

This is the first time fans get to see D’Arcy’s portrayal of Rheanyra. Earlier this year, Alcock said that the two actresses were discouraged from meeting so that they would not mimic each other too much. “Me and Emma were like, ‘Let’s meet up.’ We wanted to have a meeting with [Sapochnik] and have a discussion about Rhaenyra’s progression as a character,” Alcock explained to The Hollywood Reporter. “And Miguel didn’t want us to meet — which was really interesting! So we never had that discussion. Miguel was like, ‘Just trust that you that you both have it.’ I think he was aware we would be trying to mimic each other.”

Despite not meeting, D’Arcy perfectly shares Alcock’s “oh f*ck” face towards the end of the clip, so perhaps keeping them apart worked out in their favor!

House of the Dragon airs on Sundays on HBO.