Australian rising star Milly Alcock has exited the first series of television’s biggest show this year as House of the Dragon takes a major time jump.
Five episodes into the first series, which launched on August 22 and set new viewing records across Foxtel and Binge, Alcock’s time is up after starring in a harrowing, blood-curdling wedding in episode five.
From Monday, Emma D’Arcy and Olivia Cooke will take over the roles of Alcock’s Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen and Emily Carey’s Alicent Hightower, who played the characters during their teenage years.
Now it’s about adults, and bigger fire-breathing dragons.
The show will “have a suitable time jump to explain D’Arcy and Cooke taking over the roles” between episodes five and six, said Esquire.
Taking to Instagram earlier this week, Alcock expressed how much she cherished her time on a show which had the biggest premiere in history on both services: “I love u all I love u I love this!”
Alcock, whose body of work included 2019’s Upright with Tim Minchin, was washing dishes in a Sydney restaurant when she got the call-up for the Game of Thrones prequel.
In lightning speed, she’s become one of the most recognisable faces in the entertainment industry, with her Instagram account – which had 27,000 followers a few weeks ago – attracting one million fans.
The 22-year-old shared a series of behind-the-scenes photos as she bid farewell to her Dragons family, admitting to Newsweek she’d love to reprise the role.
“I adore Rhaenyra and I adore the cast and I adore the way that they’ve told this story, so, you know, if they would have me I’d love to come back,” Alcock said.
“But I know that Emma’s going to continue Rhaenyra’s journey for the next season or whatever.
“So I don’t really want to take away from that performance or anything, you know what I mean? I have to give her up in a way.”
However, in a candid interview with US publication Nylon, Alcock said that while her time on set was “new, exciting and daunting”, the online fandom made her “incredibly anxious”.
“It’s like a part-time job, really. I don’t know. I’m trying to not look at it and trying not to engage with it because it doesn’t benefit me. It just makes me incredibly anxious. Me seeing my face constantly is straining.
“No one should have to do that.”
She told Nylon it had been difficult to find people who related to what she had been going through.
“All of my friends are very normal and go to uni and just do very basic things, and my family’s not in the arts whatsoever, so it’s strange,” she said.
“It feels like someone’s opened Pandora’s box and you’re kind of just looking through the looking glass. It’s a bit Alice in Wonderland-y.”
‘Heirs to the throne’: A decade later
What’s in store in the next five episodes to end season one with the finale on October 24 (AEST)?
After the time jump to 10 years later, Rhaenyra has given birth to a son with husband Laenor Velaryon (now played by John Macmillan).
To celebrate 50 years of operations, HBO released the clip on Tuesday local time as part of a series of teasers for current and future projects.
We see Rhaenyra struggling to walk through the castle at King’s Landing with Laenor by her side, carrying her newborn, after Queen Alicent requested a viewing.
The scene highlights the strife between Rhaenyra and Alicent, a relationship that fuels the so-called Dance of the Dragons, the civil war at the centre of House of the Dragon, so we’re bound to see much more dragon riding and fire breathing.
In a preview segment with Emmy Magazine, D’Arcy said they’re now in a “battle over succession”.
A second series of House of the Dragon was announced on August 27, with Binge executive director Alison Hurbert-Burns saying they’d been “blown away” by the response to the show.
Milly Alcock’s next move
Hot off the success of her role in Dragons, you’d think Alcock would be locked in for several projects.
However, according to IMDb, she’s in just one – a short called Furlough.
She told Nylon she hopes to “get employed again” and wants to do something completely different.
“I’ve got nothing going on at the moment. I’m in the first phase of panic. It’s like the pre-phase of panic. Of ‘I’m never going to work, it’s never going to happen again’.
“Ultimately, I don’t want to go into another big franchise or a big series.
“I want to do something very intimate and personal and kind of like … Who’s the guy in Normal People? [a series about teenagers living in Ireland in 2011].
“I don’t even know what I’m doing tomorrow … hopefully something fun and exciting comes along, but I just really want to do something completely different to House of the Dragon.“
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