Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from the third season of ‘House of the Dragon’. Reader’s discretion is advised if you have yet to watch the show or its latest episodeAs the seventh episode of ‘House of the Dragon’ rolled around, fans were hit with quite a lot of new developments and surprises. From Dreamfyre to Sunfyre, quite a lot of dragons joined the show in a major turn of events. Following the release of the latest episode of the beloved ‘GoT’ spin-off, director Nina Lopez-Corrado, who worked on the latest episode, talked about the process of bringing the fire-breathing legends to life, while also addressing some of the biggest events in the episode as well.
Nina Lopez-Corrado talks about new developments in ‘House of the Dragon’
Talking to Entertainment Weekly following the airing of her episode for ‘House of the Dragon 3’, director Nina Lopez-Corrado weighed in on some of the latest developments in the show. She opened up about Dreamfyre, the gigantic monster that is bonded with Helaena, and how she worked on bringing it to life after extensively working on the storyboard in Vancouver.She shared, “I’ll be honest with you, it didn’t change much from the original storyboard, but the really amazing thing is when the set [decoration] department started to put together the saddle. That’s when it really starts to feel real because that’s the only physical, real part of the whole dragon.” Corrado also opened up about the completely different approach with Helaena’s character arc as compared to the original book by George R R Martin.She mentioned how they had to represent Helaena’s strong feelings about dragons and riding them, and how, after Dreamfyre killing hundereds of people in a matter of minutes, sets her off on a different path. In the book, her character is portrayed as a fierce dragon rider; however, the creators of the show have taken a different approach by showing that since Helaena shares the same views as her father, King Viserys, she refuses to ride a dragon.Corrado further explained, “Helaena has such a strong feeling about the dragons in which she’s torn because she thinks that they do change people and that they’ve changed their whole world, essentially. So when she sees herself on the dragon and sees Dreamfyre basically take out all of King’s Landing, internally for her it burns deep….” She also mentions that Helaena realizes after everything that since she is a Targaryen, things are going to continue to happen in the war. Not only that, but she also realizes that as long as the war is going on and the dragons exist, nothing good will come from it all.Another major development comes after Sunfyre; Aegon’s dragon is shown in the latest episode. Sunfyre had been assumed dead following the harrowing Battle of Rook’s Rest.
More about Sunfyre’s return
Aegon’s beloved dragon was last seen in episode four following the Battle of Rook’s Rest. In the latest episode, when Aegon is found in the woods with Tyland Lannister by a military host from Team Rhaenyra, he reveals his identity in a threatening speech, which in turn awakens his dragon.Talking about this sequence, the director comments, “I think he truly did believe that Sunfyre was dead, and I think Sunfyre was very close to being dead. During the time period in which he was lying there, he did rejuvenate so that he was able to come back. I think a part of his healing process truly had to do with the fact that when Aegon was there, he was gonna die. So I think it helped him rejuvenate enough strength to come back and save him.”
What to expect from the upcoming finale of ‘House of the Dragon 3’
The director also talks about what will be happening soon in the upcoming episodes of the show, and what fans should be on the lookout for. “I do think you should start refreshing your memories for the Battle of Tumbleton,” Nina comments, further mentioning, “We do deviate just a little bit in episode 7 from what’s originally in the books and, personally, from a character standpoint, what Ryan [Condal, showrunner] and the writers did in terms of that really helped evolve the character storylines from what were in the books.”Following the backlash over plot changes in the series, she also added that while all of this was planned, fans may understand why things were changed from the book in the coming episode. She added, “I know that’s a very controversial thing to say for diehards, but I think some of the storylines that you’re gonna see in 7 that’ll carry on into 8 were really executed strongly by the writers and also by the actors.”The final episode of ‘House of the Dragon’ season three will air on August 9, 2026, at 9:00 PM (ET) on HBO and Max.
