It’s a dynamic that you wish you got to see more of in Ryan Condal’s sophomore season—one which finds Rhaenyra consumed by grief and licking her wounds in Dragonstone, searching for a resolution that won’t see Westeros reduced to ash, while in King’s Landing, Alicent, having put her son on the throne, also tries to find a way to avoid more bloodshed. Meanwhile, their children, councillors and allies all seem hungry for war—and ensure there’s no turning back.
Ahead of the first episode’s release on June 17, D’Arcy and Cooke talk to us about missing each other on set, letting loose at the pub, and the clues woven into their costumes.
Vogue: Season 1 was such a hit. Did that mean more pressure going into Season 2—also because you’re in the whole thing as opposed to half of it?
Emma D’Arcy: I think stamina was a big worry going in.
Olivia Cooke: And remained a worry.
ED: The great lesson was…four episodes out of 10? [Chef’s kiss] Fantastic.
OC: Stunnin’!
ED: We’d rock up, color in our cheeks and love in our heart, shoot for a few days, go away for a couple of weeks, go back to our lives. I was on top of my laundry. It was an amazing time. But it was very different this time [laughs]. That’s galvanizing in other ways, but certainly you have no choice but to have…
OC: Burnout. [Both laugh.]
Well, Rhaenyra and Alicent are both dealing with a lot this season, as all these chess pieces begin to move. What were you most interested in exploring this time around?
OC: In terms of motivations and broad themes, for Alicent, it’s sort of about diminishing power. And what does she do when she doesn’t have agency or any semblance of autonomy within the castle? And who is she if she can’t shape the realm in the background? That was really interesting.
ED: And for Rhaenyra, I think grief is a major engine in the narrative this season. That was a key area of investigation for me, because grief manifests so differently in different people. I think there’s something beautiful in the way that [writers] Ryan [Condal], Sara [Hess], and the team constructed this [season], in that so many of the key characters are in quite pronounced stages of grief when we meet them at the start of the first [season], and not only does grief dislocate a person from their community, but it can also make people strangers to one another—like multiple grieving people can be quite profoundly changed. So, you end up with this family of strangers who are trying to navigate one another, and navigate the extreme emotional states that are happening within them, too. So, that as the image of the fallout of losing the patriarchal head of the family and the head of state is really astute and quite thrilling.