House of the Dragon Finale Was Nearly Tanked by COVID, Saved At The Last Moment
Having a twin brother is not only cool because you have a life-long soulmate. It is also very practical in some situations and can help solve problems which otherwise are unsolvable. This is exactly what happened on the House of the Dragon set during shooting of the final episode of Season 1.
In fact no one even noticed that it was Luke Tittensor who played both Ser Arryk Cargyll and Ser Erryk Cargyll in the show's finale after his twin brother Elliott tested positive for coronavirus. Speaking on Entertainment Weekly's West of Westeros podcast, director Greg Yaitanes explained how COVID could have ruined the filming process and what he did to avoid it.
"There's that scene, that big scene where Corlys [Steve Toussaint] comes down and they're putting the markers on the table and the messenger comes in," the filmmaker said. "It was a shot over two days and then one got COVID, [Elliott] got COVID, so we swapped him out with his brother."
Greg Yaitanes said that the scene was crucial for the HoTD finale – as they were about to do all Emma's coverage while Elliott Tittensor is standing right next to them.
The twin brothers appeared in Episode 9 when they were tasked with finding Prince Aegon but they ended up with choosing different camps. While Ser Arryk stays loyal to Alicent and the Green party, Ser Erryk swears allegiance to Rhaenyra and the blacks. The finale shows him giving Rhaenyra the crown, which used to belong to her late father King Viserys. And this is how she is then declared Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
It looks like the swap saved the show! Twins power! On a side note – do we actually know how many similar swaps directors pulled off in some of the best movies out there? Take the X-men franchise for instance. Could it be Aaron Ashmore playing Iceman instead of his twin brother Shawn? And if so will the truth come to light one day?
House of the Dragon got highest rating for HBO since Game of Thrones finale. More than 9 million people watched the show's final episode. The figure was the highest since 2019 when some 19.3 million fans tuned in to enjoy The Iron Throne – the last episode of GoT.
The filming of House of the Dragon Season 2 is underway but isn't expected to finish until summer 2023. The release will hopefully occur sometime in 2024.