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Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon gets leading man

Paddy Considine has been cast as Viserys Targaryen in the Thrones prequel.

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The Game of Thrones' prequel is one step closer to burning up your TV. House of the Dragon, based on George R.R. Martin's Fire and Blood anthology on the Targaryen family, has cast a leading man: HBO announced Monday that Paddy Considine will play Viserys Targaryen.

Considine was previously featured in Hot Fuzz, The Borne Ultimatum, Peaky Blinders and 2020 HBO series The Outsider. Viserys Targaryen is a "warm, kind and decent man," reads a synopsis for his character, "but good men do not necessarily make for great kings."

House of the Dragon occurs 300 years before the Game of Thrones and is set for a 10-episode first season. Fire and Blood, the book the show is based on, was released in 2018 by Martin. It's the first of two volumes Martin intends to release chronicling Targaryen kings. 

House of the Dragon lists Martin and Ryan Condal, producer of 2014's Hercules and 2018's Rampage, as co-creators. Condal and Miguel Sapochnik, a previous director of six Game of Thrones episodes, are showrunners, replacing the franchise's famous showrunning duo of D.B. Weiss and David Benioff.

There's no date for a release yet, but HBO head Casey Bloys said in January that his "best guess" is that it'll debut in 2022. Martin said on his site last October that Condal has already done "a considerable amount of writing." 

And speaking of release dates, we still don't have one for Winds of Winter. Sad trombone.