On the left side, we got the Hightowers of Team Green! On the right, we have the Targaryens of Team Black! It’s the ultimate battle for power folks! And we had a front row seat for the House of the Dragon press conference! And to celebrate the season premiere of HBO’s epic series, debuting tomorrow at 9 p.m. ET/PT, we’re going to share a taste of the secrets we got from the cast and crew!

Despite the fact that folks were underwhelmed by the finale of Game of Thrones, the first season of House of the Dragon brought the franchise roaring back to life! Filled with intrigue, betrayal, danger, politics, and (of course) dragons, the show defied the odds and made Westeros interesting once more! And a great deal of that can be attributed to showrunner Ryan Condal and also the amazing cast led by tour de force performances from leads Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke.

And during the press conference, which took place in New York this week, the cast was split into Team Green and Team Black, in honor of the ensuing conflict between the two houses. Team Green consisted of Cooke, Fabien Frankel (Ser Criston Cole), Tom Glynn-Carney (King Aegon II Targaryen), Ewan Mitchell (Prince Aemond Targaryen), Phia Saban (Queen Helaena Targaryen), and Matthew Needham (Lord Larys Strong). While Team Black was made up of D’Arcy, Matt Smith (Daemon Targaryen), Steve Toussaint (Corlys Velaryon) Eve Best (Princess Rhaenys Targaryen), Harry Collett (Jacaerys Velaryon), and Bethany Antonia (Baela Targaryen). Along with showrunner, Condal, they provided some really interesting updates about what to expect for the upcoming season of the Emmy-winning HBO series.

Here are some of the top facts we got from the press conference:

Season 2 was meant to be the point of no return for the past five years

When asked about how the finale of Season 1 sets up Season 2, Condal had this to say: “Yeah, I mean it’s a point of no return in a way. I mean there are multiple points of no return if feels like in this show, because everything — it’s one of these kind of entrenched conflicts. So you have these two sides that share a lot of common history that hate each other and the hatred only gets worse as things go on and the tragedies pile up. And it felt like Vhagar killing Luke was – that’s a big sea change in the way things are going to be looked at, and then what are they going to – what’s the counterpunch? What’s the counter response to that.. we just wanted to set all that stuff up so that you know all of the characters and understand where they’re coming from and what makes them weak and strong and what they want and what they love, and then throw them into the mix and see how they respond.”

Alicent Hightower is at her most powerful this season

When asked about whether or not Alicent was a vicious or malicious individual, Cooke had this to say: “I don’t see her as vicious. I sort of think she’s got a point a lot of the time. And she’s sort of got to manipulate in order to get her point across, in order to sort of steer these men away from chaos and implosion. But yeah, Season 1 you definitely saw her as the naïve girl and that indoctrination from her father has like set in; and she becomes this mini-Otto Hightower in a way. And I think at the top of Season 2 you’re sort of — she’s coming into her own power. She’s the most powerful she’s ever been is, her son sits on the iron throne. And I think it’s sort of navigating her two full-grown sons who are beginning to dismiss her more and more.”

George RR Martin is not heavily involved with the show at this point

Condal was asked about whether or not Martin had much involvement in the show. He said, “Well, look, I mean he wrote the book, so in that way he’s always with us. But yeah, I mean he’s — look, he’s very busy — there’s working in this massive universe. They want to make many more shows about this world. He’s definitely aware of what’s going on. We do, I do keep in contact with him. But I think now that we’re kind of off to the races with the show and we’ve done a good job about rendering Fire and Blood into dramatic form, that I think we’re operating on our own now, in a good way. But George is always – looms large in the background of House of the Dragon.”

The cast and crew rely heavily on continuity teams for the show

When the Team Green cast was asked how they manage to keep up with where their characters are at this course of the series, various members chimed in.

Frankel started by saying, “Very good continuity people who tell us pretty much where we are at each point. May just think like you can always go to the monitor and you’ll find Tess there, who’s the – our script supervisor chewing gum and she’ll tell us exactly what’s just happened, what’s about to happen. Because you know you shoot it completely out of order. So it’s, yeah, very useful and then just hope that you’ve not like completely forgotten that you’re supposed to be out of breath, which I didn’t do in Episode 3.”

And Glynn-Carney added, “For me? I think, I mean it’s useful in terms of knowing your whole character arc, it’s always useful for me to have some form of timeline. So to read the scripts and take out those sort of landmark moments that you know are gearshifts in your character’s progress. And yeah, just to kind of remember where those are and how they shift you and what decisions, how that informs your decisions as you play the character. But also, it’s just going of just rolling with the scenes, just being present in the scenes. It kind of does its own job if you just let it happen. Yeah, without the help of Tess and our script supervisors, that continuity team and all, we’d be lost in the woods somewhere.”

Familiarity breeds endearment

When asked about why it is the universe of Game of Thrones has endured for so long, some of the cast had strong suggestions.

Mitchell stated, “Yeah, I think the first season was shot over a long period of time during circumstances that the whole world felt. We were kind of plunged into the unknown with the pandemic. And so I think it’s brilliant that HBO were able to give back a world to the audience that they did know. Instead of being surrounded in this world of unknown, you know a Targaryen is going to be a Targaryen; you know a Baratheon is going to be a Baratheon. And I think it is that familiarity that during uncertain times it was certainly something our audience members could hold onto.”

The cast and crew felt incredible pressure to live up to Season 1

When asked about whether they experienced any anxiety in having to live up to Season 2, the cast stated their experiences.

Lord Larys himself, Needham, replied saying, “Yeah, there’s a lot of pressure. I mean it was so – it was so well received that it is a sort of difficult second album, isn’t it? And we don’t want to disappoint anybody. And everybody in every department is working as hard as they could to make it as good as they could, because we don’t want to let anyone down. And I think we’re really excited for you all to have a look at it.”

Daemon Misses Viserys 

Smith, was asked about how much the loss of Paddy Considine’s Viserys affected Daemon. He replied saying, “Quite, he lost everything. I think it’s all about – Emma mentioned in this sort of meeting we had earlier that kind of grief is the great sort of catalyst of the season in many ways. And I think that yeah, everything is about the death of his brother, really. Every single action is often related to him. And I think it sort of allows this to see a version of Daemon which is slightly more exposed and honest, and he just misses him. Doesn’t even know how to communicate that. It’s quite simple really. So he’s like a fucking crazy person, which is great. Yeah, yeah, and I miss Paddy as well. So it’s life and art imitating itself.”

Milly Alcock’s performance influenced D’Arcy’s

When asked if Alcock’s performance as Rhaenyra in Season 1 influenced how they approached the same role in Season 2, D’arcy replied by saying, “Yeah, it’s been really nice, actually, coming back to the show. I think I’m quite – I like to be quite a conscientious worker, so understanding the job description better really suits my conscience. And yeah, I mean I think we’re very lucky, a lot of the work of an actor I think is to sort of fill in the unseen time. I think that’s like a lot of the labor, the labor of love is to fill in the unseen time. And in this case, I can actually just watch it on my telly. Yeah, it’s like lovely, very unusual to have a sort of character grounding that you can literally watch and return to. And yeah, I mean I’ve sort of said this before, but I had never I suppose shared the character with another actor, with a different age before. I’d never sort of done that time share. But I think it does a lovely job of sort of physicalizing, externalizing the sort of, the split self. Like I definitely – when I think of myself as a younger person I definitely sort of – I think I perceive myself from the outside. I sort of – as though they were now a person I could have a conversation with. And sort of advise or something. And so yeah, I just thought that that sort of structurally, that was sort of beautifully imagined here. Where yeah, you can see the younger self from the outside and see the sort of division in time, division of maturity or something.”

The impact costumes had on the cast was huge

When asked about the costumes and make up for this year, Collett had this to say: “This season it’s just – I always say this, but it is just genuinely like bigger and better. Like the way the costumes were done like especially this year, it just felt so immersive. Like as soon as I put that costume on, I just looked at myself in the mirror, I was like ‘damn, I’m Jace now. Like this is real.’ …It was very, very immersive, especially the whole Winterfell cloak stuff, that was really, really cool. It just felt really surreal. And yeah, no, costumes was – props, like it’s so in detail, like there’s scrolls that you can pick up in any room and it will be written out in Velaryon or something like that. It’s just so unbelievably detailed. And little things like that, when you step on set, it just helps you experience get into character and it makes it so much easier. But yeah, that’s what I would say.”

Beyonce helped psych up some of the cast for Season 2

When asked about if there were any songs that the cast listened to to prepare them for this season, a few members chimed in with responses.

Toussaint started saying, “Well, I was gonna say, actually, for me it depends on the scene. There’s no one song that would make me feel like Corlys. But if I’m doing an emotional scene with Eve, then I might look for a sad love song or something… but I don’t think I have a them particularly. I don’t know about the other guys.”

Best on the other hand actually had several. “I made a whole playlist. Whoo, it’s so loud. I made a whole playlist this season. But it always started with my power: Beyonce’s ‘I Need Ya,’ which is a really good way to start the day.”

The was the first time Bethany Antonia rode a dragon

Despite being called House of the Dragon, not all the Targaryen’s got to mount the winged beasts. This season was the first time Baela Targaryen actress Bethay Antonia got to ride one. When asked about the experience, Antonia stated, “The bit that I found the most exciting was that you get to see what they’ve – they’ve like animated already before you get on the dragon. So you get to see what it’s gonna look like, obviously, like the cartoon version of yours. And then you get on and it’s like a buckin’ bronco. And it’s so cool. And what made me laugh was that it always comes down to a guy with a wind machine. Like no matter how much budget you have, how much CGI, there’s always gonna be a guy with a wind machine and you’re gonna be upside down. It was just the most fun. But I loved the days on the buck.”

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We have much more coverage coming up for House of the Dragon folks! So stay tuned to The Nerds of Color all this week for more interviews with many of the amazing cast members that brought this epic season of television to life!

And catch the Season Premiere of House of the Dragon, tomorrow, June 16 at 9 p.m. ET/PT, only on HBO and Max!