Emilia Clarke 'fascinated' by 'House of the Dragon,' teases Kit Harington's Jon Snow spinoff

The Mother of Dragons and Breaker of Chains looks forward to enjoying the Game of Thrones universe as a pure fan. Speaking with BBC News, actress Emilia Clarke admitted that she is utterly "fascinated" by the upcoming House of the Dragon prequel centered around the dragon-taming ancestors of Daenerys Targaryen. 

"It's going to be weird as hell," she said of the project, which ignites on HBO and HBO Max this August. "I'm going to watch this as a fresh viewer because it's [set] a be-jillion years before our show, so it's going to feel different."

Based on Fire & Blood (the 2018 history of House Targaryen) House of the Dragon hails from co-creators George R.R. Martin and Ryan Condal (Colony). The latter serves as co-showrunner and executive producer with veteran Game of Thrones director, Miguel Sapochnik.

"I’ve now watched rough cuts of nine of the ten episodes, and I continue to be impressed," Martin teased on his blog earlier this month. "I cannot speak to the SFX, many of which are not in yet, but the look of it is great, and the acting, the directing, and writing are first rate ... I think [co-creator, co-showrunner, and executive producer] Ryan Condal and his writers made good choices. Even some improvements. (Heresy, I know, but being the author, I am allowed to say so)."

The cast includes: Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Fabien Frankel, Sonoya Mizuno, Rhys Ifans, Milly Alcock, Bethany Antonia, Phoebe Campbell, Emily Carey, Harry Collett, Ryan Corr, Tom Glynn-Carney, Jefferson Hall, David Horovitch, Wil Johnson, John Macmillan, Graham McTavish, Ewan Mitchell, Theo Nate, Matthew Needham, Bill Paterson, Phia Saban, Gavin Spokes, and Savannah Steyn.

Clarke — who will soon head over to the Marvel Cinematic Universe by way of Secret Invasion on Disney+ — also touched on the recent news of a standalone show for Kit Harington's Jon Snow, confirming that it is indeed happening. As fans know, the character was last seen heading beyond the Wall alongside the Free Folk following his assassination of Dany in the Thrones Season 8 finale three years ago.

Per Clarke, Harington has been heavily involved in the development process for the currently-untitled series: "It's been created by Kit as far as I can understand, so he's in it from the ground up. So what you will be watching, hopefully, if it happens, is certified by Kit Harington."

When asked if she'd be open to revisiting Westeros, Clarke reportedly laughed and said: "No, I think I'm done."

House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and HBO Max Sunday, Aug. 21 at 9 p.m. EST.

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