Spoilers ahead for House of the Dragon through Episode 4 of Season 2.
House of the Dragon Season 2 hit its halfway point with a lot of fire and blood for both the Blacks and the Greens, and it's hard at this point to imagine any other actors playing the key roles than the current cast. As it turns out, however, there was once a different vision for a character that would have had him looking more like Game of Thrones' Khal Drogo than what fans are watching in the 2024 TV schedule. Fabien Frankel shared that House of the Dragon originally wanted somebody like Jason Momoa for the role of Criston Cole!
If Criston Cole seemed like an important character in Season 1, the second season so far proved just how much trouble he can be for the Blacks in the field of battle as well as how messy he can make life for the Greens back in King's Landing. (See: Alicent drinking moon tea in the most recent episode.) Speaking with The New York Times before the end of the first season, Fabien Frankel shared how his character could have been quite different:
I did the audition and heard nothing back other than that they were looking for a slightly more Jason Momoa type for the part. That certainly wasn’t me, and I really didn’t think about it again. What I still don’t know, and I’m fascinated to know, is whether they couldn’t find their Jason Momoa type, or if they decided to change their casting brief. If the opportunity arises to ask them, I will.
It certainly sounds like Frankel's audition process was different from what Emma D'Arcy's was, which involved three months of auditions, a wig, and an four-hour audition in person at the end... and then waiting. I have to wonder if he did ever get his answer about what changed that he was cast as Criston Cole instead of a Jason Momoa type, but I for one think that Frankel's build works better for the role than Momoa's would have.
Young Rhaenyra picking him to join the Kingsguard might have seemed like less of a gamble to Otto Hightower if the character was played by somebody built like Khal Drogo, and seeing Cole best Daemon in the tourney was more of a surprise than it would have been otherwise, since Frankel and Matt Smith have similar builds. If anything, he felt like Daemon's most obvious foil up until the biggest Season 1 time jump brought young adult Aemond into the fray.
Interestingly, Jason Momoa didn't immediately become a star in the entertainment industry after playing Khal Drogo, despite his character arguably being among the most memorable of the entire series. The actor shared that he couldn't even get a meeting for another job until years after his season, and that he and his family were "starving after Game of Thrones." Considering that House of the Dragon was pretty much guaranteed to be a big hit as the first Thrones spinoff and George R.R. Martin's source material meant that Criston Cole wasn't gone after one season, Fabien Frankel's story should go differently.
See more of Frankel as Ser Criston Cole with new episodes of House of the Dragon on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. You can always revisit every season of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon (so far) with a Max subscription.
