‘House of the Dragon’: Dragons Explained — ‘Game of Thrones’ prequel

If you’re a Game of Thrones fan who could never quite tell your Rhegal from your Viserion from your Drogon, rest easy: One of the creative minds behind the House of the Dragon spinoff says this show’s dragons will be easy to tell apart.

Which is good, because there are 17 of them.

Each of House Targaryen’s flying beasts have to have their own aesthetic, series co-creator/co-showrunner Ryan Condal tells TVLine, because “otherwise, you won’t be able to differentiate between them. So not only are they bright and colorful the way George [R.R. Martin] described them in the book, he actually gives a lot of detail about what each dragon looks like, the color of their horns and crest, the color of their scales. And then they have different silhouettes.”

Condal references Drogon, aka Daenerys’ last dragon standing in the original series, as he points out that the prequel will cover a different era in Westeros’ history — nearly two centuries before the events of Thrones — and that the giant creatures are therefore markedly different.

“Certain one will look a little bit more like Drogon did, and others look completely different. And then there’s their different scale size,” he says. “You have the biggest dragon alive in Vhagar, down to younglings and juveniles who have grown up over time.”

Dany’s “children” “were born of magic, so they matured very quickly,” he says. “These dragons grow like a real dragon would.” (And yeah, we love the fact that he said “real dragon,” too.)

In addition to an array of dragon lewks, “we really tried to imbue them with an individual personality that you can start to detect… through the animation of them and how they interact with their rider, and who their rider is,” Condal adds. “It’s my feeling that the dragons are some of the most memorable characters in our little universe here.” — With reporting by Dave Nemetz

House of the Dragon premieres Sunday at 9/8c on HBO.