Original subtitles

[? pensive music playing]

[Vanja Cernjul] It was some time,

I think in November, Andrij called me,

and, uh, asked me,

"Do you want to come back and do something spectacular?"

And I was like, "Yes, of course!"

I spent Season Two with Vanja,

and what he does as a cinematographer is amazing.

It was really special to have Vanja back.

[Ryan Condal] This is our finale.

We wanted to go out with a bang.

In many ways, Tumbleton is an indicator

of the things to come in the Dance of the Dragons.

[Rowley Irlam] Okay, here we go! Everyone ready?

And, three, two, one. Action!

[fire whooshing]

[? thrilling music playing]

We can make- We can make the start line here.

[crew member] Oh, hello, sir. You jump on the, uh,

on the, uh, stake marked there, please.

Tommy will walk to there with the guys.

Then they'll all- They all take, like four steps.

Yeah.

- [? dramatic music playing] - [soldiers shouting]

[Ryan] I mean, this is the ultimate culmination of Ormund's gambit.

And I think he's- he's played it to the very end.

Ulf hasn't reported.

And he's not with his dragon.

[Ryan] Now the Rivermen have shown up at their gates

and they're gonna go in.

This is a good, proper, old medieval siege.

[Andrij Parekh] The art department

kindly sent me a 1/100 scale model of Tumbleton.

[Vanja] First thing we did,

we bought little, uh, figurines.

And we were like playing like two kids

with this model of Tumbleton.

And we're planning how we want to approach,

uh, each particular scene.

[Ryan] It was months of crafting

storyboards and previs and showing it to me,

and we very much assembled the battle in prep,

and were able to plan and shift things

based on how we were seeing it come together.

Jim Clay and his team

built this incredible set on our backlot.

We had an incredible location,

Hankley Common in Surrey, to marry it to.

[Dominic Masters] Jim's great idea of putting

these farmhouses there

really locked everything into a landscape,

and you had a definitive focus

for playing the scenes around that.

Lord, knights,

savages and cutthroats!

[soldiers laughing]

Whether you live or die today

you will be remembered in the histories

as those who began the Hightowers' end!

[Andrij] For Daemon's speech, we really wanted to have

a sort of Braveheart moment

where he rallies and inspires not only the troops,

but the audience.

[slate claps]

I don't want the best of you! I want the worst!

[soldiers cheering]

[Andrij] It's about the sort of magnitude,

but also about the intimacy.

So, getting those wide shots,

but also being in close enough with the camera

to feel Daemon's emotion.

Go now.

And kill them.

[soldiers shouting]

Was that fun, Matt?

It was, mate, yeah.

[camera operator] Paul, what are we doing today, Paul?

We're doing- We're running up the hill with Hugh,

with Chris on focus.

The action's that way, guys.

[? plucky music playing]

[Paul Slavin] Okay, speeding and set. Here we go.

And, three, two, one.

Action!

Go!

[Kieran Bew] The Surrey "Tumbleton" part

was very open and expansive.

And probably one of my favorite days shooting is,

you know, joining a battle on an open field.

[Paul] Action!

Action!

[? plucky music continues]

[Kieran] The costume is stunning.

I have discovered over the years filming,

it is incredibly heavy.

We've done six takes so far.

So... [chuckles]

I expect to do-

We're gonna probably do-

How many?

At least 25 more.

Yeah, it was a few goes at that.

And I seem to remember it was just before lunch.

[laughing] And everyone was getting really hungry

and it's like, come on, hurry up, so...

[Rowley] ...away from the ladder as possible.

And then, literally, Bradley can watch that camera,

and as Tommy's halfway,

start the climbing,

he'll be at the top of the ladder

when Tommy comes up.

- Start there. - Yeah, just give us a-

- Shield back. - Just rile the troops.

Again. Yeah?

[Rowley] Everybody ready?

And, three, two, one.

- Action! - [actors shouting]

[? slow, dramatic music playing]

[Andrij] So, this episode required

a tremendous amount of stunt work.

I think at one point, we had

probably all of London's stunts guys

all working on the same show at the same time.

- Action! - [actors shouting]

So, we got the siege of Tumbleton.

Um, we have done sieges before.

Not on this scale, though.

This is big scale.

A lot of the A-side of that was done at Hankley Common.

And then we came back to the studio

where Jim Clay and his team have built

this huge set on the backlot.

So, we travel with the Winter Wolves...

[soldiers shouting]

...people are getting hit by rocks.

- [rock thudding] - And getting hit by arrows.

Then we're going up a ladder with Roddy the Ruin.

Someone comes past him.

[soldier screaming]

We go up the top, he ends up on the battlements,

and then he looks around to see the, uh, hidden moat

that's been set on fire,

which basically captures all of the Winter Wolves

into a kill zone.

[soldiers screaming]

- [grunting] - Nice.

Aaah! Whew!

[Andrij] Rowley really worked to make it feel

quite authentic and quite brutal.

[Rowley] You'll obviously be

- a little bit slow with that. - [Tommy Flanagan] Slow, yeah.

Yeah, so, imagine it weighs 15kg and not three.

And just feel... [grunting in effort]

You know? But push it in.

Thanks, guys. This is gonna be great.

Bastard.

I'm not gonna smile.

Don't worry about me teeth.

[mock gasping]

"That's Tommy Flanagan! Aah!"

I'll keep me teeth away, I promise.

[all grunting, shouting]

Aaaah!

- Alright, then! - Beautiful!

[laughter]

- See you later. - Oh!

- He's dead. - [laughter]

- That was right, yeah? - Moving on.

- Right. Lovely. - Well done.

[Caraxes whistling]

Dracarys!

[Caraxes screeching]

[flames whooshing]

When you see Caraxes blasting the gates

of Tumbleton with dragonfire,

that was actually practical.

[Thomas Horton] There's this great moment where we burn the door.

And interestingly enough, I just thought

the door's so huge that it's gonna have to be CG.

Like, you know, we have to burst the door open.

And I thought, oh, we're just not gonna get

all that in camera.

Of course, Mike, our amazing special effects guy

is going, like, "Leave it with me."

[Rowley] Three, two, one!

- Flame! - [flames whooshing]

[Thomas] And so we had a massive flamethrower

on the other side of the door.

[flames whooshing]

You know, bursting through.

So, we got all that real flames coming through.

And what was great was that we shot that with stunt people.

So, we were able to get the stunts

really close to the flames.

[Ryan] It's a deeply satisfying moment

in House of the Dragon lore.

And I think it is a triumph

of all of the different departments on our show.

You know, we wanted to see Daemon

as the great legendary warrior

once again leading at the head of this battle.

And that begins when he storms the gates.

Ormund Hightower!

[weapons clanging]

[crew member] Here we go, folks. Everyone set?

We're rolling, standby.

[Paul] Okay, here we go. Ready?

And, three, two, one. Action!

[both grunting]

[Ti Mikkel] Ryan and I got together early on

and we're like, "Okay,

"Daemon is gonna be at this fight.

"That means the sword Dark Sister

is gonna be at this fight."

[stabbing, flesh squelching]

Jon Roxton is also here.

[Roxton] Kinslayer!

[Ti] And he has a Valyrian steel sword of his own

called Orphan Maker.

Ahh!

[weapons clanging]

As fans, we wanted to see that fight.

Two seasoned warriors,

two Valyrian steel swords,

two of our favorites having a go.

[both grunting, yelling]

Well, I was very keen that that wasn't just a sword fight.

I wanted it to be a punch-up,

a violent punch-up,

like a bar brawl.

Quick, unexpected.

There's a real adrenaline to it,

and I'd take that over being sat in a council chamber.

But I know you need the council chamber stuff

for the context.

[? dramatic music playing]

- [soldiers shouting] - [weapons clanging]

[James Norton] There were many, many very memorable

moments for me on this job.

I think Ormund's death will go down

as one of my all-time greatest deaths.

Rowley, our stunt coordinator,

had a genius idea of how to spice it up,

and, um, I don't think this death disappoints.

[Andrij] It really needs to come inside.

[Rowley] So, they have this fight.

[slicing]

[screaming]

And then, at the end...

- ...there's this line. - [screaming]

That's a proper fucking by the North!

[Rowley] And I was like, "Okay,

so he's bent over the battlements."

I went to Ryan and I said, "What if we

stabbed him up the ass?" [chuckles]

[? tense music playing]

[yelling]

[Ormund screaming]

- [Andrij] Cut! - Cut!

[indistinct chatter]

[mimics stabbing]

[both yelling, screaming]

- [James gasping loudly] - [Andrij] Cut there.

[Paul] So, Tom, just a reminder,

there's two cues. First one's for the eyeline.

The second- And I'm gonna say, "eyeline."

Second one is for your cue to say the "Dracarys" line,

I'll say, "fire."

I say "fire,"

you say...

- [Paul] Dracarys! - Yeah!

[Paul] Hey! [laughing]

[Tom Bennett] When I read the script,

there were two moments

where I had to put the script down

and just take a second and go,

"Is that- Is this really happening?

Do I really get to say the word, 'Dracarys'?"

Yes, I do. [chuckling]

I do get to say, "Dracarys."

[Paul] Fire!

[Tom] Dracarys!

[flames whooshing]

[all shouting]

And then the other moment I had to put the script down,

was when I turn the dragon to Ormund and say...

Fuck you, too.

[Silverwing growling]

[both yelling, screaming]

They both get torched by Ulf's dragon.

Action!

- [explosion booming] - One, two!

And we shot that on second unit

and we had those guys engulfed.

And we had people falling off the battlements on fire,

which was really cool, too.

Out! Out! Out!

[fire extinguishers hissing]

On the backlot, I think we ended up doing

something like nine explosions in,

in a fortnight.

[explosion booming]

People would just come down from the office and just be like,

"Yeah, where are you gonna stand for today's explosion?"

Like, "Okay, guys, you've gotta be safe. Be over there.

Everybody behind the railings."

[Mike Dawson] We're doing really long strafes

and we're putting a curvature in it as well.

So he can come along and go around

corners with his strafing.

And I think that'll look really dynamic.

[flames whooshing]

It feels like we've upped our game.

This is the season where it all comes together.

[flames whooshing]

[fire extinguisher hissing]

[? tense, suspenseful music playing]

[Andrij] Action.

When Rhaenyra is revealed, it's quite a sight to behold.

[Ryan] I think it's going to be very striking in that look

about how much she has committed to this change

that we've seen her first going through subtly

and now all at once.

It's a transformation. It's a different character.

[Andrij] It's a total Darth Vader moment

where she has this incredible armor,

a huge cape,

a crown,

and she looks quite fearsome.

[both laughing]

Hello!

- Welcome back. - Thank you.

[Simon Brindle] Emma was really fantastic

throughout the process.

They were really responsive

and very interested in what we were going to do.

These are bits and pieces that Simon mocks up.

So we get an idea of what things might look like.

[Simon] Came down,

did a small tour of the workshop,

spoke to the crew.

Really encouraging and very excited to see

what we'd end up with.

I think I just really love chainmail

and I would actually wear it on my days off.

I've got really into chainmail, too.

Yeah. Like, this is so vibey.

[Caroline chuckles]

Like, that's so vibey, isn't it?

[Caroline McCall] We're getting more armored.

We're getting more battle-ready.

Emma really loved the idea

of, you know, becoming this warrior.

I think it's one of the biggest visual changes

we'll have seen on Rhaenyra, and maybe

since the beginning of Series One.

The chainmail, I was worried that it was gonna swamp Emma,

that we would lose the beauty of Rhaenyra.

[Emma D'Arcy] So, we had talked about

the idea of some sort of war paint,

but something that felt really simple

and something that she could have done herself.

[Amanda Knight] And we thought, what can we do?

And it was like that sort of dragon-blood-red.

[chuckles] I had a go, she had a go.

And where we landed was

this sort of gesture in a red pigment

that just runs through the eye.

[Amanda] In the end, it was very simple.

And I always think some of the simple things

look the strongest.

And then Emma and I said,

"Well, they're never gonna let us do this."

And Ryan loved it.

And was like, "Yeah, this is perfect.

This is great. Let's go for it."

Well, I remember the palpable relief

when we put everything together

and it worked.

Um, there's something kind of Joan of Arc,

I think, about this like imagery.

And I find it really exciting

because for the first time,

Rhaenyra is cognizant of the image-making.

This is about fascist imagery.

This is about iconography.

[? dramatic music playing]

Before his death,

my father, Viserys the Peaceful,

named me his heir.

[Paul] Okay. Let's roll sound.

[crew members] Rolling!

[Paul] All crowds looking up to the queen, guys!

Looking up to the queen!

I think the balancing act really is to make sure

that the crowd are engaged and understand what it is.

It's a big moment in the episode.

The challenge is when you've got crowd,

you want enough people there

to give the artist energy to react to.

But at the same time, too many people in the eyeline

can become distracting.

All the supporting artists are fantastic here.

A lot of them are returning.

People of King's Landing!

I mean, I'm really grateful to all of the supporting artists

who were there that day for their patience

and for being willing to be so participatory,

actually, in the scene.

I just like- I just think I love it, yeah.

And the more energy they gave me,

in a way, the better.

Or the more that they fought her

actually, the better.

[crowd booing and jeering]

[Ryan] Emma was very open to giving us

different levels and versions so that we can, you know,

snip it together in the magic of the edit.

Then to my father!

Then to me!

Then to my father,

then to me.

[crew applauding]

We cut there. Thank you.

Thanks for being such a nice audience.

[applause]

I think it's one of the most impressive things.

You need it in a good light 'cause it's worth it.

It's so amazing.

[? upbeat music playing]

[Ryan] We were looking for a way to dramatize

what Helaena was seeing or purporting to be seeing.

And we loved this idea of her being this, you know,

incredibly accomplished artist.

So, this is Helaena's tapestry,

which, um, is probably one of our most significant graphics

for Season Three.

Ryan was very keen for this not to be very literal

and it not to make sense.

It was all quite symbolic and abstract.

Everything you see here

I illustrated as a drawing.

I drew out all those pieces and colored it in.

The messy strings that you see was something I did by hand,

and it shows that she's depicting her own death.

And kind of strings are coming off,

and it's quite a tangible thing

for Phia the actress to be able to pull on strings

and show her madness going.

And...

it's quite upsetting, really,

how it ends with her death.

[Phia Saban] It really feels like Helaena's like almost

overworking herself doing this,

'cause maybe it is her therapy in that sense.

And there's also quite a nice poetry to the idea

that it's an externalization of

when she's done, then that's the end.

So, she's working towards this sort of like

meta finishing point.

[Andrij] 'Kay, let's... Yeah, cut there.

[Ryan] Phia...

We adore you. We love you.

Please, uh, come back and visit.

And, uh, keep in touch.

- Thank you so much. - So, thank you for everything.

[cheering and applause]

That one hurt. It very much hurt to, uh,

to say goodbye to Phia at the end of that episode.

[Phia] I think what I would say is

I'll miss the relationships

with the whole crew and the cast.

[both laughing]

Like, the web that actually makes the show.

[Clare Kilner] Cut.

[all laughing]

I'll miss Liv. I'll miss, like,

being Helaena and Liv being Alicent

and us like having a laugh.

That's what I'll really miss.

Oh, my God, I will miss working with Phia.

I'm gonna really, really, really, really miss her.

[Ryan] Phia is such a great one.

I marvel at her uniqueness

that she brought to Helaena as a character

and made her somebody

that you always deeply cared about.

I just love the way Phia dramatized her character.

[? poignant music playing]

[Andrij] Filming Season Three has been such an honor.

It's the biggest undertaking I've ever...

I've ever done.

It's incredible to be part of something...

uh, and to be surrounded and supported by everyone.

Uh, thank you all for your amazing work,

your humor, your talent.

I hope I've pushed you in the right way.

Um...

[voice breaking] It's deeply meaningful that...

we made this together.

- Thank you, boss. - [cheering and applause]

[Andrij] All of it has been just such an honor and a pleasure.

And I have to thank Ryan Condal for that,

for inviting me back.

[Ryan] Each season is really a two-year journey.

You know, from the time that we start the writing process

to the time that you actually

deliver the season and put it on the air.

And even though it's only eight episodes,

I mean, it's, you know, 300-plus shoot days

and years and years of commitment

and very little downtime.

But it's incredibly satisfying, and I think that

it takes a while to learn your own show, in a way.

And I think it was Season Three

that all the cylinders started firing.

[Clare] We've become a family now.

The crew, the actors, everybody, you know,

is like working to kind of one common goal.

But we have such trust

that we can push the boundaries creatively.

[explosion booming on monitors]

Holy shit!

Oh, my God!

This is what filmmaking is all about. It's that-

It's that infectious feeling of we do this together,

this crazy carnival,

to make the most epic show on television.

[Nina Lopez-Corrado] And...

Action!

[Nina] Being able to come over here

and be a part of,

of this studio has been absolutely incredible.

I feel like that little piece of history

is a part of me now,

and I'm really grateful for that.

Cut.

[all laughing]

?

[Ryan] I'm very proud of this thing that we've made,

and I think the audience will be rewarded.

And we just love where this leaves all the characters

to launch us into the end game

for the final season, Season Four.

[? poignant music playing]

[? theme music playing]

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