Of all the warriors of steel and queens of power featured in Season 1 of HBO’s hit series House of the Dragon, none were more rock ‘n’ roll than Daemon Targaryen, the rowdy, rogue prince played by Matt Smith.
In the Game of Thrones prequel, the “Agent of Chaos” (as Smith calls him), who swaggered everywhere from boardrooms to brothels, was a season-long thorn in the side of his peace-loving, model-making brother, King Viserys (Paddy Considine). But offscreen, the smirking Targaryen hunk with the flowing blonde wig was the king of lusty memes known as “the Internet’s Boyfriend.”
“Everyone is really into him, and I feel the same way. I kind of like Damon,” Smith says. “He’s got a cool edge to him.”
House of the Dragon reviewSeason 2 is good, bad, and very ugly all at the same time.
But the 41-year-old British “Doctor Who” star warned that there will be problems with the demons in “Dragon” season 2. “The demons are a little weaker this season, they’re a little different,” he said.
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“House of the Dragon” returns on Sunday (9 a.m. EDT/PDT, streaming on Max), and we’ll let you know what happens.
Matt Smith brings his own unique hotness to Daemon Targaryen, but he needs some hair
Who better to infuse the scene-dominating “dragon” character with demonic DNA than Smith, who, after his breakout role as the 11th Doctor in three seasons of Doctor Who, played the royal mischief-maker Prince Philip, the ultimate real-life second in line to the throne, in the first two seasons of Netflix’s The Crown.
Dragon executive producer Ryan Condal says that while Smith had no royal training, he inspired the writers even before he took on the role. “We had Matt’s face on the writers’ board,” Condal says. “He was always the archetype for Damon in our minds.”
The dark-haired Smith endured the daily task of donning Damon’s blonde locks. Over the 20 years of season one, the hairstyle has changed, but the 90 minutes of wig work has remained the same, which allowed Smith to better portray the perennially impatient character of Damon.
When the Dragons game began, Smith got serious about it. He rides the dragon Caraxes in the series. Caraxes is a giant, rampaging horse contraption set against a blue screen; the dragon was added digitally later. Smith was allowed to show off riding a dragon without using his hands for the demon.
“If I had a dragon, I’d ride it like that,” Smith said. “It’s a dragon that lives its life, rides with no restrictions, and doesn’t care about anything.”
He married two more times after decapitating his enemies and conveniently murdering his troublesome wife (which calls into question the whole “Internet boyfriend” story), and Damon eventually ended up united with his equally strong-willed niece, Rhaenyra (Emma Darcy), the king’s daughter who had been promised the throne.
While his brother slept, Damon sat cockily on his coveted Iron Throne. “It’s made of swords, so if you’re not careful you can get poked in the wrong places,” says Smith. “But it felt really good to sit on the throne, and I can’t wait for Emma to sit on it again.”
What’s happening to Demons in House of the Dragon Season 2?
That’s a big part of the drama in Season 2: King Viserys dies and his spoiled son Aegon (Tom Glynn Carney) is placed on the throne by his mother Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke), Viserys’ widow, his grandfather Otto (Rhys Ifans), and his eyepatch-wearing brother Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).
Rhaenyra’s claim to the usurped throne is supported by Daemon and a coalition that includes Velaryon (Eve Best and Steve Toussaint), and a rift develops between her and Daemon as war threatens to break out between the two over who is the rightful ruler.
Damon also gets a bit of his own time, taking over Harrenhall, a strategic castle controlled by Sir Simon Strong (Simon Russell Beale). It’s great for Smith, who co-stars with the legendary British actor Beale (“He’s a national treasure”) in a lively scene. But the castle is far from the main conflict, dilapidated and genuinely haunted. Damon may be deeply affected by ghosts, or by past guilt. Either way, he’s pretty insecure.
“He’s tormented by his feelings about the present and the past,” Smith says. “I think that was a conscious decision by the writers. They didn’t want to just make the same old thing. It was like, what else can we do with Damon?”
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Damon surprisingly mourns his brother, with whom he never seemed to get along when the King was alive.
“It’s triggered by grief. He’s deeply saddened by the death of his brother, but he’s not able to share that or express it to anyone. So we’re left with this character of Daemon Targaryen who is very unstable and confused, which will be entertaining for audiences,” Smith says.
A confused demon going haywire is better than no demons at all, especially in the troubled world of Game of Thrones, but fans will be rooting for the Old Demons to return to bad behavior.
“I’m sure he’ll be back,” Smith said, “but you’ll just have to wait and see.”
