Even though it’s been a couple of weeks since the Season 1 finale of House of the Dragon dropped, fans are still talking about everything that went down between House Targaryen.
The new series, which is a prequel to Game of Thrones, focused on King Viserys (Paddy Considine) and who he chose as his successor. Having no male heirs, the King decided to make his daughter, Rhaenyra (portrayed at the time by Milly Alcock), the official heir.
However, this caused a lot of conflict because Rhaenyra was a girl. Then, when Viserys’ second wife, Alicent (Olivia Cooke), started bearing sons, things got even more heated.
By the end of Season 1, Alicent had made her son the King after Viserys died, and Rhaenyra was ready for war after the death of her son.
While fans wait to find out what happens next in Season 2, they have been filling their time finding out any juicy new tidbits about the TV show.
Most recently, an actor swap that was missed by many fans is what has everyone talking.
House of the Dragon featured many actor swaps
Season 1 of House of the Dragon featured a good many actor swaps. This was because the show spanned a large amount of time from when Rhaenyra was a young teen through to her 30s.
Over the course of that time, many characters grew up, and babies were born that also aged up.
Rhaenyra and Alicent went through two actors each whereas Laenor Velaryon and his sister, Laena, when through three each.
Then, when Rhaenyra, Alicent, and Laena started having children, these offspring also got replaced by different actors as they grew up.
However, there was one actor swap that had nothing to do with growing older.
Enter Ser Arryk and Ser Erryk Cargyll
Ser Arryk and Erryk Cargyll are a pair of twins that only really entered the scene in Episode 9 of House of the Dragon. Here, they were tasked with tracking down Alicent’s son, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), ahead of crowning him the new ruler of Westeros.
However, over the course of the episode, they realized that maybe they did not side with Alicent and defected to Rhaenyra’s side, showing up in Episode 10 with Viserys’ crown.
And it is this episode that involves the unexpected actor swap, according to Entertainment Weekly.
The reason no one noticed it, though, was because the swap occurred between the two identical twin actors who portray Arryk and Erryk.
During the filming of the Season 1 finale of House of the Dragon, Elliott Tittensor, who portrays Erryk, contracted COVID-19 and, luckily, his brother, Luke, stepped in to play his part.
“There’s that scene, that big scene where Corlys comes down and they’re putting the markers on the table and the messenger comes in,” director Greg Yaitanes revealed.
“It was a shot over two days and then one got COVID. [Elliott] got COVID, so we swapped him out with his brother.”
HBO has not yet set a release date for Season 2 of House of the Dragon.