[This story contains MAJOR spoilers from the House of the Dragon season three finale.]
Exiting the penultimate season of House of the Dragon, several season one alums who started the series are no long with us: Rhys Ifans as Otto Hightower, Harry Collett as Jacerys Targaryen, Fabien Frankel as Criston Cole, just to name a few. One original cast member, however, is very much still with us, even if it looked pretty touch-and-go for a while there: Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake, played with royal gravitas by Steve Toussaint.
The Sea Snake started season three in the midst of the largest naval battle ever seen in the Game of Thrones universe. He survived that, despite a brief period where it appeared he’d been killed in action. Later, after Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) refused to legitimize his bastard sons, Corlys publicly calls out the queen’s hypocrisy with her own children, and somehow manages to keep his head on his shoulders. Later still, after waging a private war against the crown’s defectors, Corlys ends up in the hands of the Hightowers in Tumbleton — and he survives that only by the good grace of Gwayne (Freddie Fox) exchanging Corlys to Daemon (Matt Smith) as a peace offering.
Alas, the peace does not hold even for a minute, as Daemon takes Corlys back as a prisoner, and embarks on a fiery campaign against Tumbleton. By the end of it, Daemon faces death’s door, but is pulled away just in the nick of time by — you guessed it — the Sea Snake himself.
If that felt like a rollercoaster to ride, imagine living it. Better yet, imagine being Toussaint, one of the most stalwart cast members of the Game of Thrones prequel, inhabiting that ride. Below, the actor speaks with The Hollywood Reporter about all of that and more.
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I have spoken to a lot of actors this season about their character’s deaths. It’s a nice change of pace to speak with an actor who still has some HOTD job security!
So far! (Laughs.) You never know how long it’s going to last. I kept getting stuff from friends and family and social media going, “Are you still alive? Do you live? Come and tell me.” So it’s nice that I can say that yes, for now, I’m still here. Who knows what tomorrow may bring. But for now, I’m still employed. They can’t get rid of me that easy.
Corlys begins the season fighting for Rhaenyra’s cause, and ends the season as a prisoner of that same cause. It’s quite the journey for the Sea Snake.
It is. There have been so many different facets to him that we’ve had a chance to explore this season, particularly him showing humility and vulnerability with his son, Alyn. One of the big things, of course, is that he apologizes for his earlier actions to Alyn in that scene in episode one. The other thing that’s consistent about him is, of course, taht Corlys is so steadfast in doing what he considers to be the right thing, no matter the personal cost. That’s been fascinating about him.
Then at the same time — and this is from Corlys’s point of view — when he then says to the queen, “Look, I’ve lost all of this stuff. I’ve lost my wife. I’ve lost my kids. I now have lost my home and much of my fleet. Could you at least legitimize my two sons?” She sort of goes, “Not just yet.” There is a sense of righteous indignation on his part because I think for him, the only thing he can do is to try and put his sons in a position where they can better themselves, where carrying his name will help them.
So it has been fascinating to see how he’s dealt with what he considers to be a betrayal by the realm. Of course, initially, he avoids King’s Landing and goes off on this rampage mopping up dead pirates and trying to calm his rage. It was a really lovely journey and lovely to explore these different facets of this character.
You’re at the heart of my favorite scene of the finale: the hostage negotiation between Daemon and Gwayne, with you as the bargaining chip. What was it like, inside the scene?
It was lovely. What was so good about it was you don’t quite know where Corlys is going to come down. Several times when I read the scene through, and then when we rehearsed it, I said to both Andrij Parekh who directed the scene, and then to David Hancock, one of our execs, “What is it that Corlys has said here that’s so bad?” Because when we were shooting it, Matt obviously plays the lines, but sometimes he likes to ad lib some stuff as well. He was just going wild with some of the insults he was throwing at me.
Tommy Flanagan, Freddie Fox, Steve Toussaint and Matt Smith in the House of the Dragon finale.
HBO
Do we want to know?
I don’t know. (Laughs.) I was like, well, I don’t know what he said that’s so bad, because it made sense to me! Corlys is at a point where he’s seen so many battles, seen the futility of war, and there is actually no need for him to shed any more blood than is necessary. So it’s unfortunate for him, of course, that he’s up against Daemon who’s like, “Oh no, everybody has to die.” It was lovely. We had a lot of fun. I don’t know how many times we actually shot that in the end, but the peaks and troughs of the scene were really lovely to play. They’re two wonderful actors to work with anyway. So yeah, it was a lot of fun.
Were you disappointed to miss out on the big battle at the end of the season, or was the sea battle in the premiere hard enough work for you?
I was happy to take a break. The premiere battle was so tough. We must have shot something like three or four weeks, maybe longer, of the battle itself, which ends up being about 10 minutes. I was quite happy just to be watching the dragons flying over and then doing a bit of running and jumping [in the finale]. That was good for me. I wouldn’t have minded cutting somebody up from the navel to the throat just to show that Corlys can! But no, I leave it to those guys to do that stuff.
By the end of the season, Corlys — freshly imprisoned by Daemon — actually seeks out Daemon and is the one to talk sense into him: We’ve lost, and it is time to go. Where is the Sea Snake’s head at when he convinces Daemon to leave?
What I saw when I watched the scene is what happens to Daemon after that explosion where he suddenly comes to. I think Daemon realizes they’re not going to win. So he starts looking for fights because I think he wants to go down fighting. He’s just looking to fight until somebody chops him down. It’s a death wish, I believe. Corlys saves him from himself. He sees in Daemon someone who is formidable, someone who is worthy and someone who is a vital instrument for the queen’s cause. I think that’s what Corlys is thinking when he saves Daemon. Their relationship has always been a bit up and down. Where will it go after they leave this scene? I’m not sure.
It should be an interesting return to King’s Landing, at the very least.
Right, because the last time Corlys was with Rhaenyra, he called her out in public. And normally, people die for that. Now of course, at that stage, Corlys still had some use to the queen, but I’m as interested as anybody else to see what the relationship is like between him, Rhaenyra and Daemon. I do not have a clue, frankly.
You could always read the book and find out! But if you’re going purely on instinct, as the man who inhabits this character, what’s your feeling on how things will shake out for you in season four?
I feel like he comes back and is like, “Let’s put that shit behind us or let’s deal with that later. Right now we have a war to win, and that’s more important than anything else.” As you said, I haven’t read the books. I made that decision very early on that I wasn’t going to read the book while I was playing this. And I have tried in the past or just saddled up to Ryan [Condal] and sort of go, “What’s the story?” And he’s like, “I can’t tell you, but it’s good stuff. You’ll like it.”
What do you want to see when it comes to that good stuff? Is there anything left on the bucket list to make sure you achieve in the final season?
(Pauses.) No, not really. We’ve seen him angry, we’ve seen him sad, seen him loving with his wife. I can’t think of any one particular thing that I’m like, “Oh yeah, we have to do that.” I’m just happy to be surprised.
Is it too late to go for a dragon ride?
Oh, you’re right.
Maybe he’s just a late bloomer!
Exactly. Or even he goes for a joyride with his son, Addam. Yes, that’s it. You’re right. That’s the one. I’m going to have to start putting that into Ryan’s ear.
I’m picturing Corlys on one dragon, Addam and Alyn on the other, and you part ways across the Narrow Sea like the Westeros version of the end of Furious 7.
From your mouth to Ryan Condal’s ears!
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House of the Dragon season three is now streaming on HBO Max; read THR‘s finale coverage.
