It’s A Shame ‘House Of The Dragon’ Has To Lose Its Best Actress To A Time Jump

Call me clueless, but I did not realize the pending structure of House of the Dragon, nor did I consider that the show, at some point, is about to lose what I’d consider its best asset because of its odd timeline.

House of the Dragon is supposed to take place over a 28 year span in total. While we do not know how many seasons it will take to reach its conclusion, we were alerted ahead of time that there will be a time jump mid-season, and as such, the two “young princess” actress will be written out of the show, young Rhaenyra Targaryen, Milly Alcock, and young Alicent Hightower, Emily Carey.

Going back to look at the news stories now, I guess I totally just missed the memo on this. The older versions of these characters, and the ones that will likely last the rest of the series after what’s supposed to be a 10 year time jump at first, were cast before the younger versions. Emma D’Arcy will play Rhaenyra and Olivia Cooke will play Alicent once the jump occurs.

We do not know when this switchover happens, only that it’s before the end of this season and really, could be any episode now.

To me, this is a bummer, because it means House of the Dragon will have to say goodbye to its main standout actress, Milly Alcock, where this has been an absolutely star-making turn for the young Australian actress, the 22 year-old playing a 15 year-old on the show. Even in just two episodes she has put on a powerful display among much more veteran actors, as before this, she only had a few stints in a number of TV shows you probably had never heard of. This is her hitting the big time, and I suppose the good news is that I expect her career will really take off after this. Even if she’s only around for three, five, or seven episodes of the whole series.

When are Milly Alcock and Emily Carey being replaced? That we don’t know yet. Presumably one of these weeks we will get a preview of the following week’s episode that will tell us, but I don’t think it’s just after two episodes here. I’d assume this happens more midway through the season.

As of last night, we are now seeing the schism form between Rhaenyra and Alicent, as Rhaenyra’s not-good-at-being-king father has chosen to marry Alicent, pissing off both his daughter, as she’s her best friend, and his key ally, who now conspires with his brother.

I get that the timeline laid out in the story means that this kind of time jump is apparently necessary, but to me it does feel as weird as it would have if Game of Thrones time jumped and recast say, Arya and Sansa with new actresses after five episodes or the first season. Part of Thrones was seeing those actors all grow up in real time. But I guess that doesn’t work for the House of the Dragons timetable. Still, I expect big things from Milly Alcock in particular after this.

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