Game of Thrones was a HBO show that got the world talking, and fans have been brought back to Westeros with its spinoffs like House of the Dragon (streaming with a HBO Max subscription). The Season 3 premiere saw Henry Collett's Jace die at the Battle of the Gullet, and the second episode featured Rhaenyra's reaction to this devastating loss. And actor Emma D'Arcy explained to CinemaBlend and other outlets about why they "dreaded" filming the scene where Rhaenyra said goodbye to her son.
House of the Dragon Season 3 has already had a number of major character deaths, and smart money says the loss of Jacaerys is going to influence the season as a whole. While speaking to myself and other journalists in a round table interview, D'Arcy got real about why they were dreading filming Rhaenyra's reaction to Jace's dead body. In their words:
If I'm honest, it was the only scene in the series that I sort of dreaded shooting and was quite avoidant about for a while. But you know, a part of that is because the relationships that we have on the show and the friendships that we form are like, you know, very real and they're amazing. They're friends of mine . So there is always a, a life imitating art aspect to a character death because, uh, we lose a company member. And, and so those days have a, they have an atmosphere necessarily.
This really tracks. Because while we're only in the third season of the GOT spinoff, the House of the Dragon cast has been working together since back in 2021. And while character deaths have repercussions in the narrative of the series, it also means that actors who played those roles are also leaving the set. And that added extra emotional weight to Emma D'Arcy's final scene with Harry Collett's Jace.
While folks like to keep up with which HOTD dragon belongs to who, it's also fascinating hearing how the sausage gets made on set. And after speaking to my roundtable about why they dreaded the Jace goodbye scene, Emma D'Arcy spoke to how it'll affect their signature character throughout the rest of Season 3. In the actor's words:
I think for Rhaeneyra, Jace's death is an insurmountable loss, honestly. I think it's unprocessable and I think there's something very brutal about her paying kind of the highest price for her ambition before she's even sat the throne. Feels like a particularly harsh sentence for the character. I think actually grief sometimes simplifies things and in the sort of scenes that follow, I think it offers her a sort of nihilism in that final part of the journey.
Is it Sunday yet? Because with Rhaenyra now on the Iron Throne and seemingly leaning into nihilism, I can't wait to see what comes next for Emma D'Arcy in House of the Dragon Season 3. While Team Black was able to take King's Landing with minimal bloodshed, I'm sure the challenges are still coming. And after losing two songs (including her heir), I'm curious about how brutal Rhaenyra might end up becoming.
New episodes of House of the Dragon air Sundays on HBO as part of the 2026 TV schedule. The Dance of the Dragons is far from over, so I'm preparing for more character deaths-- both human and dragon.
