Former Doctor Who star Matt Smith is coming back to television again for House of the Dragon, but Daemon Targaryen is definitely no Eleventh Doctor in the Game of Thrones spinoff. As the younger brother of the king and a potential claimant for Iron Throne over his niece, he’ll be a key figure in the conflict over the Targaryen succession. And, according to the actor, he’ll be involved in plenty of sex scenes, which he had some questions about.
Sex scenes were certainly to be expected after the precedent that Game of Thrones set. House of the Dragon isn’t doing everything the same way as the parent series, of course, as one writer already clarified that the spinoff isn’t going to show sexual violence. There will be plenty of sex, however, as Matt Smith told Rolling Stone UK:
You do find yourself asking, ‘Do we need another sex scene?’ And they’re like, ‘Yeah, we do.’ I guess you have to ask yourself: ‘What are you doing? Are you representing the books, or are you diluting the books to represent the time [we’re living in]?’ And I actually think it’s your job to represent the books truthfully and honestly, as they were written.
Like Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon is based on the writing of George R.R. Martin, although not an ongoing novel saga like A Song of Ice and Fire. The new series is based on the fictional history book called Fire & Blood that chronicles the Targaryen dynasty, and doesn’t dive as deeply into relationships compared to the novels. Any sex scenes in House of the Dragon won’t be coming from page to screen.
Readers might be particularly happy to discover Matt Smith’s sentiments about the show staying true to the books, after Game of Thrones’ divisive final seasons outpaced the A Song of Ice and Fire source material before George R.R. Martin could finish The Winds of Winter. (Fans are still waiting on The Winds of Winter, to the point that Martin had to come out and defend the delay.) Smith did admit to the outlet that he hasn’t read Fire & Blood “in its entirety,” because it’s “a big fucking book.”
That doesn’t mean that he hasn’t read all the source material that he needs to in order to play Daemon Targaryen. Fire & Blood is a history of the entire first half of the 300-year Targaryen dynasty, and the era covered by House of the Dragon is only a portion of the book. So, Smith might have all the book knowledge he needs, and he even settled the question of whether his character has his share of sex scenes:
Yeah — slightly too much, if you ask me.
Well, fans will need to prepare to see Matt Smith’s Daemon Targaryen in more than one kind of action, based on the actor’s comments combined with the intense full-length trailer! Even with the major conflict seemingly centered on the Iron Throne, House of the Dragon won’t be Game of Thrones 2.0. After all, there are legitimate Targaryens to spare at this point in the dynasty, and many dragonriders.
Dany could burn her way through the Seven Kingdoms to get to King’s Landing as the only person with dragons in the original show; that’s not the case for House of the Dragon, and it could well become one of HBO’s biggest hits since the original series ended back in 2019.
See Matt Smith’s debut as Daemon Targaryen with the series premiere of House of the Dragon on Sunday, August 21 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO. If you want to revisit Westeros in the meantime, you can find all eight seasons of Game of Thrones streaming with an HBO Max subscription.
