House Of The Dragon Casts Another Key George R.R. Martin Character, And I Hope Season 3 Follows The Book For This One
My fingers are crossed.
House of the Dragon ended Season 2 back in August with its strongest Game of Thrones connection to date, but the third season of the clash between the Greens and the Blacks isn't expected until well after the end of the 2025 TV schedule and into 2026. As the wait continues, though, news breaks of another actor joining the cast to play a character straight out of the pages of George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood.
Of course, given how Season 2 rather infamously departed from the plot of the book, there's no guarantee that his storyline in House of the Dragon Season 3 will resemble what the A Song of Ice and Fire author penned. My hopes are high, though, with James Norton joining the cast to play Ormund Hightower.
James Norton As Ormund Hightower
House of the Dragon cast an HBO alum to join the third season, as James Norton was part of The Nevers cast before landing roles in projects like Bob Marley: One Love and Playing Nice over the past five years. Variety reports that he's landed the role of Ormund Hightower for when HOTD returns. The character was referenced in Season 2, and the outlet reports that he's the nephew of Otto Hightower, cousin to Alicent and Gwayne, Lord of Oldtown, and leading the Hightower army against King's Landing and Rhaenyra's forces.
Basically, even if he won't be riding any of the dragons of House of the Dragon or a member of the Targaryen family tree, he could cause a fair amount of trouble for the Black Queen as a leader among the Greens. It's possible that he unofficially appeared at the end of Season 2, with the glimpse of a marching Hightower host and the blue dragon of the Daeron Targaryen. (Daeron hasn't appeared yet either as Viserys I and Alicent's youngest son.) Both seasons so far are available streaming with a Max subscription.
Why I Want To See George R.R. Martin's Version Of Ormund Hightower
Light spoilers ahead for George R.R. Martin's Fire & Blood.
House of the Dragon is based on George R.R. Martin's in-universe history book about the Targaryen dynasty, called Fire & Blood, and the accounts from unreliable narrators always meant that the show didn't have one set story to follow as an adaptation. As Martin himself pointed out, though, there were some massive changes from book to screen in Season 2 that may fundamentally alter how the story can end, and opinions are certainly mixed on what changed from his original Blood and Cheese to what happened in the show.
So, there's no guarantee that any character that makes the cut from Fire & Blood will be recognizable in House of the Dragon. All bets are really off after how the show handled Rhaenyra and Alicent's relationship in Season 2, not to mention the omission of Maelor as Aegon and Helaena's youngest son. Yet I have some hope for Ormund Hightower, especially with the final scene of Season 2 featuring the blue dragon Tessarion.
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I won't get too deep into Fire & Blood spoilers here to spare any non-readers, but I'm hopeful for book-accurate Ormund because I'd love to see a solid adaptation of the Battle of the Honeywine. In that battle, the Hightower host is led by Ormund and ultimately a victory for the Greens, although mostly due to some very cool dragon action from Daeron and Tessarion rather that heroics from Ormund.
Now, I'm a Team Black supporter all the way, but Ormund could be a very interesting character for the Greens. Plus, depending on how far Season 3 extends into the Fire & Blood timeline, he could be involved in some other impressive battles. House of the Dragon of course isn't going to feature every single battle from the book, but with at least another year expected until the new season, why not hold onto some hope?
As for whether the story on the whole will follow Fire & Blood more in Season 3... well, at least Daemon's spooky arc in Harrenhal is probably done.
Laura turned a lifelong love of television into a valid reason to write and think about TV on a daily basis. She's not a doctor, lawyer, or detective, but watches a lot of them in primetime. CinemaBlend's resident expert and interviewer for One Chicago, the galaxy far, far away, and a variety of other primetime television. Will not time travel and can cite multiple TV shows to explain why. She does, however, want to believe that she can sneak references to The X-Files into daily conversation (and author bios).
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