Through all the time jumps and cast changes, many Fire & Blood fans began to wonder about the status of Prince Daeron Targaryen, King Viserys and Queen Alicent’s youngest son. Many fans believed that Daeron wouldn’t be a part of the House of the Dragon at all since he hasn’t been seen once in the first season. Author George R.R. Martin put all the rumors to rest and revealed why Daeron has been missing.
The author confirmed in his recent blog post that “Alicent gave Viserys four children, three sons and a daughter, their youngest son Daeron is down in Oldtown, we just did not have time to work him in this season.” There you have it, folks. Right from the source!
As Fire & Blood fans know, a Targaryen civil war is coming over succession: the Dance of the Dragons. At the end of episode 8, King Viserys died after years of suffering. He remained resolute that his oldest child, Rhaenyra Targaryen, would be his heir to the Iron Throne and not his oldest son with Alicent, Aegon Targaryen.
In his last moments, Viserys made a grave misstep. Viserys believed he was talking to Rhaenyra about Aegon’s Song of Ice and Fire prophecy, but Alicent misheard him (or chose to mishear him). Alicent left thinking that Viserys ultimately wanted her son, Aegon, to be king and not Rhaenyra, setting forth into motion the bloody Dance of the Dragons.
Episode 8 featured the final time jump, giving us our first look at the adult versions of Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), and Helaena Targaryen (Phia Saban). As of right now, Prince Daeron has not been cast yet, but he will be a key player in the war to come.
If you haven’t read Fire & Blood, you might be asking: who is Daeron and what role does he play? Daeron is a teenager during the Dance of the Dragons and rides Tessarion. He goes to Oldtown to be a squire for Lord Ormund Hightower. When the war begins, Daeron marches with Ormund and is dubbed “Daeron the Daring” after saving Ormund. He becomes instrumental in the war and a great threat to the Blacks at certain points.
House of the Dragon has already been renewed for season 2. In the same blog post he spoke about Daeron, George noted that it’s going to “take 4 full seasons of 10 episodes each to do justice to the Dance of the Dragons, from start to finish.” HBO is going to have no problem greenlighting 2 additional seasons of the series given how much of a monster hit the show has become.