Spoilers ahead for the Season 3 premiere of House of the Dragon.
House of the Dragon is the first spinoff for Game of Thrones, following its controversial finale. Folks with an HBO Max subscription were recently treated to the premiere of Season 3, which started off with a bang with the epic Battle of the Gullet. The epic scene saw the death of both Jace and his dragon Vermax, although actor Harry Collett explained why he wasn't upset about his time on the show ending.
After a long wait, House of the Dragon Season 3 has finally begun. The book to screen adaptation has taken some liberties from the source material, including the details about how Jacaerys died. I had the chance to speak with the cast in round table interviews ahead of its premiere, where Collett shared his POV on his character perishing in the season premiere. In his words:
I was told what would happen in Season One, so I've been preparing for this. And it's like, I'll always be grateful for being in this show in the first place. But yeah, ultimately I've had the best time ever, and I get to travel the world because of it. And it was kind of when you said, has it been filmed this way? I sort of filmed all of the battle stuff before and then I left House of the Dragon, went and shot a movie, came back, and then basically played all the dead bits. And my last ever day on set was me dead. So yeah. So it probably really hit quite a bit.
While HOTD fans who didn't read the book were shocked by Jace's death in the Battle of the Gullett, the same cannot be said for the actor who brought Rhaenyra's son to life on the small screen. He's been emotionally preparing for his time on the show to end, and just seems happy that he was able to join the House of the Dragon cast at all. And smart money says this twist is going to have major implication for the rest of the season.
It's fitting that Collett did all of his dead scenes at the end of his tenure filming House of the Dragon, and one can only imagine how emotional it was on set. Later in the same interview, the 22 year-old actor gushed about his character's ending on the show, saying:
But yeah, what a great way to go. And I'm glad it just didn't get, you know, brushed under the carpet. And I dunno if you guys agree, it's a really impactful episode. So it's been done amazingly, so yeah. I'm very, very happy.
There you have it. Some fans might be bummed about Jace's fate, but that seemingly isn't the case for Harry Collett. He loved how it all turned out, including his character and the dragon Vermax being tragically killed by the Triarchy's forces. We'll just have to wait and see if the actor returns at any point; we'e seen visions/dreams bring back former characters already on the series.
House of the Dragon airs new episodes Sundays on HBO as part of the 2026 TV schedule. Smart money says that Jace won't be the only major character death to come this season.
