House Of The Dragon's Ryan Corr talks the unexpected longevity of Pedro Pascal's Red Viper
The actor, who plays the recently deceased Ser Harwin "Breakbones" Strong, says Ryan Condal saw Strong and Red Viper as having a similar "impact"
Spoiler warning: This article contains details about key plot points and developments in House Of The Dragon episode six.
Even fabricated history repeats itself. HBO’s House Of The Dragon, which travels back roughly 200 years before the events of Game Of Thrones, has proven so far that unexpected, brutal deaths have always been Westeros’ bread and butter. Both series’ penchant for killing off anyone and everyone has led to jokes about job security for the series’ actors. But for the actors who play murdered characters, like Ryan Corr, it’s nice to have a well-populated graveyard from which to take inspiration.
Corr plays Ser Harwin “Breakbones” Strong on House Of The Dragon, who (alongside his father) faced death by all-too-literal fire and brimstone in the series’ most recent episode. Speaking with The A.V. Club’s Cindy White in a new interview, Corr reveals that House Of The Dragon creator Ryan Condal actually directly drew the connection between Strong and Pedro Pascal’s unforgettably-offed Red Viper of Dorne (also known as Oberyn Martell.)
Corr says Condal emphasized “how [the Viper] was there for a limited amount of time but his presence lingered, long after his death and throughout.” “Obviously they’re very different characters, but [Condal and co-creator Miguel Sapochnik] saw their impact as being similar,” Corr shares.
For Corr’s onscreen father Gavin Spokes (who plays the also-deceased Ser Lyonel Strong), a different character of the beheaded persuasion comes to mind: the former King of the North.
“The good die young,” Spokes muses. “I mean, Lyonel was not very young, but yes, exactly. We keep up that tradition Ned Stark so beautifully launched for us all.”
“You’d be very wary of falling in love with characters on [Game Of Thrones] because they were all killed,” Corr agrees. “But that was sort of one of the ideas, too. We spoke to Miguel [Sapochnik] and he said, ‘We want to rip their heart out.’”