‘House of the Dragon’: Emma D’Arcy on Rhaenyra’s Paralyzing Grief (Exclusive)

Emma D’Arcy hit the red carpet for the NYC premiere of the highly-anticipated Season 2 of “House of the Dragon."

“Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi spoke with Emma, who opened up on what to expect in the upcoming season.

They said show picks up about two weeks later, as Rhaenyra Targaryen comes to terms with the death of her son Lucerys Velaryon at the hands of Alicent Hightower's son Aemond Targaryen.

Emma reflected, “I think she is stricken with grief. I think she’s almost paralyzed with it, unable to act clearly and just sort of grappling, I suppose, with this truly devastating loss.”

D’Arcy praised the show’s writers, saying, “I think a beautiful thing that Sara [Hess] and Ryan [Condal] and the team have built this season is allowing grief to be a motor, an engine in the narrative, and the sort of political designs that we go on to watch are deeply personal... which for me, is when both 'House of the Dragon' and 'Thrones' is kind of at its best, when the political and the personal are totally enmeshed."

Rhaenyra must now decide if she'll go to war against her childhood friend Alicent, and Emma remarked, "It's a hell of an arc, right? And it's long. You're looking at like eight hours of material."

They added, "I think a load of the work actually shooting this series was just trying to find a way to be super specific about where you are in space and time because we cross-shoot the whole series... So much changes every episode, it's sort of why I think it's so exciting, but like making sure you are holding that context really specifically at all times was, like, probably for me the key challenge of this piece of work."

Emma said there won't be any major time jumps this season, though.

They also teased, “As ever, Rhaenyra is sort of surrounded by people who are kind of endlessly critical of her, of her choices, of her sort of war strategy, of her potential ability as a ruler, and I think she spends Series 2 looking kind of left of field for other types of solutions.”

Emma shared their thoughts on the success of the show, which is a prequel to “Game of Thrones," and being nervous to step into that world.

They commented, “I think if we're really honest, we're very aware that a prequel to a radically successful TV series shouldn't work. You need an incredibly good reason to return to a site that's so beloved.

"I think probably in some way, the success of the show maybe took us by surprise… You’re in really personal territory. People cherish this world and these characters, and so it’s been nice coming back this series and feeling like we had a little more license in the space.”