House of the Dragon hopes to show sex and violence in a ‘non-gratuitous’ way compared to Game of Thrones

House of the Dragon will present sex and violence in a different way to Game of Thrones, actor Steve Toussaint has said.

The forthcoming fantasy drama series will tell the story of the Targaryen civil war that took place roughly 300 years before the events portrayed in Game of Thrones.

A criticism made of the original series, which ran from 2011 to 2019, was that its scenes of nudity, sex and graphic violence added little to the value of the show, with some calling them “superfluous”.

Ahead of House of the Dragon’s debut, Toussaint, who plays Corlys Velaryon in the series, has spoken out about getting the balance of graphic scenes right compared to Game of Thrones.

“You’re walking this line between being authentic and being gratuitous and that certainly was the criticism,” he told the Radio Times.

However, according to Toussaint, this new series still contains sex and violence as a reflection of the environment, but makes a conscious effort to use these elements wisely.

He explained: “There is some sex in it. There is going to be violence because it is a violent world. But we’ve tried not to be gratuitous.”

Producers have also been clear that sexual violence will not be a feature of House of the Dragon, after some characters experienced it in Game of Thrones.

House of the Dragon comes to Sky Atlantic and Now on 22 August.