Ahead of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ release, they finally dropped the first teaser, and in it, you might notice something different about the Targaryen family’s sigil. You’re not seeing things either; they really are a bit different, and the Game of Thrones spinoff’s co-creator explained why while also revealing the conversations they had with House of the Dragon’s creative team about what needed to stay the same about it.
As the first trailer for the upcoming Game of Thrones spinoff premiered, EW spoke to co-creator and showrunner Ira Parker about a specific Targaryen detail featured in it. This detail has to do with the family’s flags you can see waving in the wind. In this new show, they’re slightly different from HOTD and GOT as it features a dragon with its wings extending backward as fire encircles the creature, as you can see in the left image. The right image shows the sigil used in the other two shows, and it features the dragon’s wings crouched in as part of the circle.
According to Parker, while a lot of things about Westeros wouldn’t change over the course of generations, the art will evolve. He explained that that’s the case here, saying:
But I do think that there are artistic progresses, or at least cycles, that there is a new designer of House Targaryen doing just a little bit of a different freehand version of something. That’s really all it is. It wasn’t meant to be anything different other than this is the sigil of this specific time. Everything should feel very bespoke to our show.
Adding on to that, the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner noted that as they were doing this, they had a lot of conversations with House of the Dragon’s team, and its showrunner, Ryan Condal, specifically. Parker said they had “a lot of conversations” with him about this exact topic, explaining that the sigil discussion had come up before.
In Game of Thrones, there were two versions of the sigil. One was a three-headed dragon with two legs, which is how it’s described by George R.R. Martin. Then, later on in the show, which you can stream with an HBO Max subscription, when Daenerys Targaryen sailed for Westeros, they used a four-legged dragon. That later design was also used in House of the Dragon, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms wanted to keep their sigil similar when it came to the number of legs, as Parker said:
We were talking a lot with [Condal’s] team, which is a lot of our team, as well. We made sure that we got it right, so it has the right number of legs.
Of all the details for these two shows to discuss, the number of legs the dragons on the Targaryen symbol have was not one I’d thought of. However, it makes sense.
While this new show, which George R.R. Martin is “so so so pleased with,” takes place decades after the events of HOTD and 100 years before Game of Thrones, obviously, fundamental details need to carry over and stay the same. As Parker said, not a lot about Westeros changes. So, I’m happy they touched base with their fellow prequel to make sure everything was right before they tweaked it just a smidge to give it their own personal touch.
It’s been said before, but it’s worth saying again: this show will be different from Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and that’s clear in tiny details as well as bigger elements of the trailer, like the tone. However, other details will stay the exact same, because every series takes place in the same world of fantasy, and that consistency is key.
So, to compare, contrast and catch all of this on screen, make sure to tune into A Night of the Seven Kingdoms on January 18 and House of the Dragon Season 3 whenever it comes out on HBO Max.