House Of The Dragon Season 2's 'Black' Trailer Has A Stark But You Probably Missed It
A lot is going on in the "dueling" trailers for Season 2 of "House of the Dragon." As the series enters its sophomore season, fans can expect the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons to begin in earnest, especially considering that Season 1 closed out with a brutal battle between the warring Green and Black clans.
After Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D'Arcy) loses her son Lucerys (Elliot Grihault) during an airborne duel — which happened to be against Prince Aemond Targaryen (Ewan Mitchell), the second son of Rhaenyra's nemesis Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) — she wants to take revenge and to reclaim the Iron Throne for herself. All in all, it's quite clear that Season 2 of HBO's hit series (and the first major "Game of Thrones" spin-off and prequel) will be action-packed and intense ... and introduce plenty of new characters.
One of those new characters can be seen very briefly in the trailer, and he'll prove pivotal to the story as Rhaenyra's Blacks and Alicent's Greens try to shore up support for their opposing causes throughout Westeros. In the official Team Black trailer, eagle-eyed viewers can spot Cregan Stark, played by Tom Taylor, talking to Rhaenyra's eldest son Jacaerys (Harry Collett). Though he's only visible in profile and from behind, this is a huge reveal, since the Starks are such an enormous part of the overall "Game of Thrones" narrative.
Who is Cregan Stark and why is he important to the events of House of the Dragon?
So who exactly is Cregan Stark? You can spot him about 46 seconds into the "House of the Dragon" Team Black trailer speaking to Jacaerys, but here's what else you need to know about this potentially pivotal character. In his younger years — which appears to be the version of Cregan we'll see in "House of the Dragon" — he's a formidable Lord of Winterfell known as the Wolf of the North. After the Dance of the Dragons concludes, Cregan ends up serving as Hand of the King to Aegon III Targaryen, a son of Rhaenyra Targaryen who becomes king much later on in the overall narrative.
Showrunner Ryan Condal spoke to Entertainment Weekly about the trailer and said that he's quite excited to introduce Cregan Stark into the mix, thanks to his powerful fighting forces and his own skills as a swordsman. "He's very powerful," Condal told the outlet. "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."
Who's playing Cregan Stark, and where have you seen him before?
The man behind Cregan Stark might be familiar if you're a fan of Stephen King adaptations — specifically, if you loved the 2017 adaptation of "The Dark Tower." Tom Taylor, who was cast as Cregan at the end of 2023, still boasts a relatively modest resumé, but playing Cregan will certainly put him on the map. Early in his career, Taylor played a leading role on the BBC thriller "Doctor Foster" and briefly played a young Uhtred in "The Last Kingdom" (at which point Alexander Dreymon took over the role). Perhaps his biggest pre-"House of the Dragon" role to date, though, is that of Jake Chambers in Nikolaj Arcel's take on "The Dark Tower," which is a huge role, considering that he's the protegé of Idris Elba's lead character Roland Deschain.
Taylor's big break as Cregan Stark comes on June 16, when "House of the Dragon" returns to HBO and Max. Until then, fans can keep speculating about this presumably vital character.