Director Alan Taylor Season 2 ‘House of the Dragon’ Battle Interview

Nothing burns like betrayal. The long-awaited tangle of dragons and the strategic crafty of the Aristocracy ring by in Home of the Dragon Season 2, Episode 4. Titled “The Pink Dragon and the Gold,” director and government producer Alan Taylor helms The Battle at Rook’s Relaxation, which finds Rhaenys (Eve Finest) on the warpath to defend her household’s kingdom and declare to the Iron Throne. After Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) makes an ill-fated determination to trip Sunfyre into the throngs of warfare, alongside his brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) and Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), Rhaenys and her dragon Meleys find yourself sparing with the younger, misguided ruler. That’s till Aemond swoops in to save lots of the day with Vhagar killing Rhaenys whereas additionally sneak attacking Sunfyre, main Aegon to plummet from the sky to nice damage. It was a brutal episode that set social media and followers on hearth because the outcomes of the warfare perpetually modified the scheming underbelly of King’s Touchdown. 

Right here, Taylor speaks to Deadline about waging warfare between brothers, the rising demise toll, and the problem of making the right dragon battle. 

DEADLINE: How lengthy did this huge battle episode take to movie?

ALAN TAYLOR: I type of have a psychological block about how lengthy we spend on filming issues. Every episode is totally different, and the schedule additionally displays that. One of many attention-grabbing issues about the best way we movie Home of the Dragon is that we block-shoot the complete season. It’s not conventional in that one particular person shoots their episode after which the subsequent particular person is available in and shoots their episode. We’re all capturing our episodes on a regular basis. That’s why it’s onerous to maintain monitor of what number of days we get. Particularly for the battle since you’re actually leaping out and in of units, and different administrators are coming in for the complete season. The primary week all 5 administrators labored on one thing. 

DEADLINE: You’re no stranger to directing Recreation of Thrones, however I’d argue that this episode of Home of the Dragon is considered one of your largest challenges but. What was your preliminary response to receiving the script for the episode, and the way did you delineate what you had been going to do?  

TAYLOR: It’s at all times an analogous course of. You get the script and have to determine how you’ll do it and pay attention to the way it matches into the general image. This one was a bit discombobulated as a result of we began off with 10 episodes. I used to be going to do a special battle sequence on the finish, after which issues bought reshuffled. We had been nicely into prep earlier than I used to be assigned this one. Understanding that the battle was coming in Episode 4, in the midst of the season, and figuring out that we needed to construct storylines that may proceed to develop over the course of the season formed how we approached that. 

The most important factor was that I used to be monitoring the truth that this may be the primary time dragons had been deployed as a weapon, the primary time they went to dragon warfare. For the course of the primary season and the start of the second season the neatest individuals in Westeros are saying it is a dangerous thought. So, we needed to ship on what it means to deploy them. The metaphor I used to be carrying round was that that is the primary time somebody decides to drop a tactical nuclear weapon, and the way will that change all people concerned? And every part grew out of that. That outlined how we formed the battle itself. It outlined how we adopted the battle by our characters, like Ser Criston Cole, who’s chargeable for this however can also be probably the most devastated by it. He’s a warrior who can by no means see warfare the identical once more after this. So, what you do is work out what the massive concepts are after which attempt to form every part round it. 

DEADLINE: Talking of a tactical weapon, that shot of Vhagar touchdown on the sector is wild. She’s basically stomping round whereas all this black smoke is behind her. It appears like D-Day.

TAYLOR: Proper, just like the opening to Saving Personal Ryan. That sequence that [Steven] Spielberg did is inspirational for each filmmaker about methods to seize the fog of warfare. I’m glad you picked up on that. When Vhagar slams into the bottom, that’s the watershed second, the nuclear blast for our episode. It knocks out our primary character, our standpoint character, Cole. From that time on, it’s a special world. 

DEADLINE: What had been the opposite inspirations for this episode? 

TAYLOR: The factor I really like about George R.R Martin’s writing is that it’s grounded in actuality and grounded in historical past. So, it’s fantasy and the dragons, however it’s completely primarily based on the fact of issues. So, when my associate and I had been designing the battle sequence and the dragon combating, we spent numerous time a number of issues. One is the attractive relationship between the characters and their dragons was one thing we wished to painting. We additionally regarded on the manner horse homeowners work together with their horses. When Aegon is greeting Sunfyre, that was lifted from how I’ve seen horse homeowners work together with their horses.

Extra importantly, we checked out numerous documentary footage of birds of prey and the way they interact and combat. And so, we invented this second that additionally makes Rhaenys appear very sensible the place … As a result of we seen that birds of prey will do that factor the place in the event that they really feel they’re being encroached upon, they flip the wrong way up and so they interact talon to talon. And they also’re combating within the air, however their talons are engaged, and so they turn out to be this demise spiral right down to the bottom. So, it’s a recreation of rooster to see who’s going to launch. And so, we stole that and used that for the massive climactic second in Rook’s Relaxation.

DEADLINE: Now, let’s speak about an actual demise spiral. I believe we’re nonetheless spiraling from the lack of Rhaenys. 

TAYLOR: It’s humorous you carry that up as a result of my profession has weirdly changed into this factor the place I often homicide individuals’s favourite characters. In Recreation of Thrones, I killed Ned Stark. In The Sopranos, I killed Christopher Moltisanti. It goes on and on. Then, lastly, I bought to kill Rhaenys and the dragon on this one. It’s at all times the identical viewers response, which I really like, that factor the place individuals get indignant at their TV or HBO or with me. Then, on the identical time, they adore it and it’s extremely thrilling for them. So, it’s a beautiful metaphor for the way we take care of our personal mortality, I believe. Anyone we actually care about is dying, however they’re fictional, so it type of permits you to off the hook—a trial run for dealing with demise in a enjoyable manner.

DEADLINE: I’ll by no means allow you to off the hook for that one. However now, let’s speak about your aesthetics within the scene main as much as her demise. She’s flying up above the combating on the bottom, and it’s peaceable and practically silent aside from the sound of the wind and the dragon wings flapping. Then there’s the occasional swell of this stunning music. Speak about this. 

TAYLOR: I’m so glad you’re highlighting the quiet and the piece. So, we’re up above the fray and separate from it. There’s peace and wonder, and all of us want we might be flying on dragons – most likely. There’s quiet there, and later in her demise second when she’s falling, releasing and letting go. That’s a phenomenal factor that I’m glad we bought to seize. However the problem it raised was, how do you actually combine what’s occurring with the dragons and what’s occurring on the bottom? That was one of many largest challenges. It may well’t simply be an air present with visible results. It has to really feel like one thing we’re actually experiencing. All types of thought went into how we floor the dragons and join them to the bottom. That’s a part of the explanation why they preserve slamming into the bottom. 

Each digital camera angle on the dragon is an actual point-of-view angle. There’s no magic cameras flying round. It’s both we’re watching them actually from a personality’s standpoint, or we’re watching them from the place a digital camera could be mounted. For instance, the cameras are mounted on the entrance of a dragon like a hood decoration. Once more, going again to the unique George R.R. Martin factor of making an attempt to take this fantastical stuff and make it grounded in our actual expertise as a lot as attainable. 

DEADLINE: What number of cameras are we speaking about for a scale this huge? And what number of extras? 

TAYLOR: We at all times have two cameras on set, often three. And in a battle, you’ve possibly 4. Then there’s additionally a second unit led by the sensible Rowley [Irlam], the stunt coordinator on the present. He has two cameras going across the nook doing what he’s doing simply to chop into our footage. There’s numerous cameras. For extras, I believe we had 400 for sure days, after which there’s replication that we do, so it appears like 1000’s. Even once I bought to the battlefield, I used to be amazed by what the present was in a position to put on the market within the discipline. Not simply the numbers of troopers however separate liberties from totally different homes. Excellent armor on the lads but in addition on the horses. So, it’s an enormous real-world footprint, however it’s important to develop it with expertise. 

DEADLINE: Again to Eve Finest. Are you able to speak about working together with her in these ultimate days of capturing as Rhaenys? 

TAYLOR: It was pleasant. I used to be not a part of season one. I had simply got here in for season two. And also you’re assembly this array of actors who had been so spectacular and who already know their characters, so it may be type of intimidating to return in and presume to direct them as a result of they’ve already been doing it for some time. She was great. She was very collaborative within the route. And I believe she may inform we had been offering her a fairly good end. I believe she was pleased with what she knew was occurring. I’d heard she was not having enjoyable on the dragons in season one, being on the dragon buck while you’re being bounced round like that. However she was only a nice trooper for our factor. I believe we’d improved her armor slightly bit, and he or she simply knew it might be a fantastic sendoff for her. She was pleasant. She spent hours on this dragon buck with a computerized digital camera following her round. She was solely on the battlefield itself as soon as mendacity within the mud trying useless. However apart from that, most of her stuff was on our stage. I attempted to trip the dragon buck at one level, however they wouldn’t let me as a result of they stated insurance coverage wouldn’t cowl it. 

DEADLINE: How are you collaborating with showrunner Ryan Condal to get the episode’s imaginative and prescient throughout?  

TAYLOR: He and his staff write the episodes, and you then are available in to form it—particularly one thing as massive and complex because the Episode 4 battle. There have been issues I wished to speak about when it comes to ensuring it had that sturdy construction the place it constructed as much as impede our nuclear occasion. As soon as Rhaenys dies that’s the emotional type of conclusion of the factor. We talked about ensuring there wasn’t an excessive amount of story to play on after that as a result of I believe our emotional factor crashes there.

Then there was the collaboration of bodily issues and methods to stage it. I selected Bourne Wooden in England. Ridley Scott makes use of it in nearly all of his motion pictures; I additionally shot Thor: The Darkish World there. It’s a beautiful location as a result of it gave us this tree line, a discipline, after which the fortress that wound up shaping how we did all of the drama. As a result of I like the concept the troopers are additionally hiding within the tree line. When you step out of the tree line, your dragon fodder and it’s a killing discipline. That was stuff that was not a lot within the script because it bought created as we discovered the situation and labored on it. He’s a superb collaborator. There’s a dialogue between the story and really staging the factor. They converse to one another.

DEADLINE: One of many different surprising issues was Aemond setting Aegon and his dragon on hearth. You see that for a break up second, Aegon was blissful to see his brother doubtlessly assist him in battle, then it flashes to horror so shortly when he realizes his brother is able to kill him. Aemond makes this sly smile. Speak about working with the actors on this. 

TAYLOR: As a result of the characters are wealthy and layered, there’s some complexity and ambiguity. I wished to not be solely clear about how a lot Aemond meant to destroy his brother. A part of what’s occurring right here is that if his brother goes away, he ascends to the throne. That’s partly driving him. It’s additionally a tactical transfer; he’s blasting Meleys, Rhaenys, and his brother, who’s an fool for being there and shouldn’t be there. So, he’s type of that collateral harm. After I learn the scripts, I didn’t understand how great his character was going to be till I began working with Tom Glynn-Carney, who performs Aegon. I believe he’s most likely my favourite actor within the present as a result of he brings a lot innocence and humor to this dastardly man and mixes the 2 sides of his persona so nicely. It’s so comprehensible that he must go to this battle as a result of his mother stated—within the worst parenting second of all— “Simply do nothing. I anticipate nothing of you.” And so, it’s a phenomenal second when he decides to go off and present his heroism.

After which, after all, by turning up, he simply screws every part up simply by being there. So, on his facet, he’s terrified, in over his head, and making an attempt to be a hero. He sees his brother coming and, for a second, thinks oh, thank God. After which he begins to comprehend what’s actually occurring. So, all of that stuff is enjoying on Tom’s face as he goes from reduction, inhalation to horror. Then, the anomaly tracks during. We see him crash into the woods, however solely from a distance. Once we discover his physique on the finish—in additional ambiguity—we now have Aemond standing over him with the well-known knife, possibly intending to complete him off. We’ll by no means know. We don’t reveal the state of his physique a lot, we simply know he’s smoldering there. For the viewers and for the residents of King’s Touchdown, we don’t know if he’s useless or not for some time was the intention there.

DEADLINE: Even in that second after we see Aemond with the knife, such as you stated, it’s so ambiguous. He’s enjoying with the knife, we marvel if he’s going to complete the job by killing his incapacitated brother, however then Ser Criston Cole is available in and doubtlessly stops Aemond from killing him. Even the purpose that Ewan Mitchell makes with the lazy flick of the wrist is attention-grabbing. 

TAYLOR: We had been making an attempt to maintain ambiguity there. When Cole finds him he … I wished him to be brandishing his sword in a manner that might be threatening or might be him placing his sword away as a result of we didn’t fairly know methods to learn what was simply occurring. Cole enters the scene not figuring out what was about to occur. Did I simply cease regicide or am I being paranoid about this? How a lot can I belief this man? In order that he places his sword away after which finds the dagger that tracks by all of Recreation of Thrones and is the dagger that kills a really well-known character later. He’s simply twiddling with it. I like the truth that he used that to level to his brother. Nevertheless it’s all simply meant to be true to Aemond’s conflicted character. He does most likely love his brother, however he additionally would profit by his demise. And he additionally has contempt for him for not being the chief that he is aware of he might be.

[This interview has been edited for length and clarity.]