Why ‘Game of Thrones’ star John Bradley is hesitant to watch ‘House of the Dragon’
Sam Tarly isn’t on team Targaryen.
John Bradley, who starred as Jon Snow’s (Kit Harington) best friend Samwell Tarly on all eight seasons of “Game of Thrones,” isn’t one of the 29 million viewers who reportedly tuned in on a weekly basis to watch the hit HBO spinoff show, “House of the Dragon.”
“I’ve still not watched it. ‘Game of Thrones’ feels like it ended a bit too recently for me to watch, but I’ve seen bits of it,” Bradley told The Post, while recently discussing his new Netflix series, “3 Body Problem.”
Bradley also said that he’s been hesitant to watch “House of The Dragon,” because the subject matter is a departure from the original show, which aired from 2011 to 2019.
“It feels like a bit of a different show, I have to say. ‘Game of Thrones’ had so many characters in it spanning all across the Seven Kingdoms. There was much more scope for all of humanity to exist there,” said Bradley.
Bradley added, “There were these very broken characters. There were vulnerable characters. There were characters that had a bit of comedy about them. There were strong characters, and wounded characters, and evil characters. And ‘House of the Dragon’ feels more focused on one particular area of the narrative, and one particular area of humanity. So, it just feels like there’s slightly less scope to it.”
“House of the Dragon,” which aired its first season in 2022 and will premiere Season 2 in June, is set around 200 years before the events of “Game of Thrones.”
The story follows a civil war between branches of the Targaryen family, who are Daenerys’s (Emilia Clarke) ancestors.
The plot follows Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Milly Alcock as a younger girl, then by Emma D’Arcy as a woman), who was named the heir to the throne, even though it’s unusual for a woman to rule.
Sure enough, after her father King Viserys (Paddy Considine) kicks the bucket, she ends up in a civil war with her half-brother Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney), who claims that he’s the rightful monarch to succeed their father.
Because they’re Targaryens, Rhaenyra also happens to be married to her uncle, the volatile Daemon (Matt Smith), while Aegon is married to his sister, Helaena (Phia Saban) and also has a volatile and murderous brother, Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).
Both sides also have dragons, which makes their conflicts extra deadly.
“But, everybody that I’ve spoken to loves it,” Bradley added, referring to “HOTD.”
“I will get around to it one day. It feels a bit like the comparisons [to ‘GoT’] are slightly too easily made now for me to be able to really invest in it properly.”
