House of the Dragon Season 3 Opens With Battle of the Gullet, Built Over 4 Years

3 articles · Updated · Variety · Jun 6

Ryan Condal told SXSW London that Season 3 will open with the Battle of the Gullet, calling the sequence unlike anything television has done before.
4 years of planning went into the set piece, with production designer Jim Clay saying the team built full-scale ships, dry and wet tanks, and moving gimbal decks to stage the naval clash.
10-15 kilos of muscle, months of stunt rehearsals and heavy armor underscored the scale for cast members, who described slippery decks, water, corpses and chaotic close-quarters fighting during filming.
Season 3 also pushes the civil war deeper, with Condal saying factions will fracture further and the story will feel relentless as events set in motion at the end of Season 2 accelerate.
The showrunner called it the biggest season yet by a huge margin in shoot days, locations and construction, framing the new episodes around how proximity to the throne warps leadership.