Cregan Stark arrives in “House of the Dragon” season 2 first look

"The Dark Tower" star Tom Taylor walks the Wall as the Wolf of the North.

EW's 2024 Summer Preview has dozens of exclusive looks at the most anticipated TV shows, movies, books, and music of entertainment's hottest season. Continue to visit ew.com through May for more previews of what you'll be watching, reading, and listening to in the months to come.

The Wolf of the North is ready to howl!

The Dark Tower and The Kid Who Would Be King actor Tom Taylor emerges as Cregan Stark in Entertainment Weekly’s exclusive first look at the character in House of the Dragon season 2.

At this period in the timeline of Game of Thrones, which takes place hundreds of years before the events of the original HBO series, Cregan is the current Lord of Winterfell and the son of the late Rickon Stark. Actor David Hounslow appeared ever so briefly as Rickon back on House of the Dragon season 1, episode 1, when he pledged fealty to the young Rhaenyra Targaryen (Milly Alcock) as the future queen of Westeros.

Now, years later in season 2, Rhaenyra’s son Prince Jacaerys Velaryon (Harry Collett) arrives at Winterfell to seek the aid of Cregan and his army in the North to support his mother’s claim to the Iron Throne. "He's very powerful," House of the Dragon co-creator Ryan Condal previously told EW of the new Stark on the scene. "Everybody's vying for his army. He's quite a bit younger than Ned Stark was, so it's interesting to see the Young Wolf, the young Stark lord, and how he carries himself in the world, and the burden that's on his shoulders being the Warden of the North. I'm excited for the audience to see and experience that.”

When House of the Dragon returns to HBO and Max this June 16, season 2 sets audiences firmly at the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons, the violent Targaryen civil war between the sides of Rhaenyra, her father’s chosen successor, and her half-brother Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), whose family, the Hightowers, usurped the throne for him.

Cregan has always been an intriguing figure to those who have read George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood, the source material for House of the Dragon. The book chronicles the complex history of House Targaryen, but often uses multiple sources to tell the tale, each maintaining conflicting accounts of how certain events transpired. Similarly, it’s unclear what happened when Jace arrived to meet Cregan at Winterfell during the Dance of the Dragons. One source claims the two young men struck an immediate friendship and swore blood oaths to each other. Another source claims Jace became infatuated with a woman named Sara Snow, Rickon’s bastard child, and was forced to marry her after they slept together.

Sara Hess, Condal’s main writing partner on House of the Dragon, tempers expectations for what plays out on the show. “Expect very little,” she says of Sara Snow. “Our POV is the Targaryens, and our POV is split between King’s Landing, Dragonstone, and then when Daemon [Matt Smith] goes to Harrenhal. We just don't have the eyes to really be everywhere at the same time.”

Condal does reiterate that season 2 feels much more global than season 1, and he was personally struck by the sets for Winterfell. “For me, seeing the North in this show and how it was built really got to me,” he says. “Those were the first characters that I read about 25 years ago when I found the books [Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire], and here I was now standing on set with them in a show that I co-created. It was mind blowing to me.”

Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free daily newsletter to get breaking TV news, exclusive first looks, recaps, reviews, interviews with your favorite stars, and more.

Related content:

• Greens vs. Blacks: House of the Dragon showrunner breaks down secrets from season 2's dueling trailers

• It really seems like a Game of Thrones Aegon's Conquest spinoff is in the cards

• Meet the Jon Snow ancestor and main Stark of House of the Dragon
  

Read the original article on Entertainment Weekly.