House of the Dragon Season 2 Cast: Meet Alys Rivers, Ulf White, Cregan Stark, and More

House of the Dragon‘s world gets even bigger in season 2. With the Dance of the Dragons Targaryen civil war now in motion, the “Blacks” (Queen Rhaenyra I’s supporters) and the “Greens” (King Aegon II’s supporters) must enlist the other Great Houses of Westeros to their cause.

This means that many of the characters we’ve gotten to know thus far, Prince Jacaerys (Harry Collett), Prince Aemond (Ewan Mitchell), Ser Criston (Fabian Frankel), and more, will hit the road to recruit nobles like college football coaches in need of a star quarterback.

“People have to curry favor with the other lords and figure out who’s on what team,” House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal told Den of Geek. “It’s nice because instead of just introducing 18 new characters, we follow characters who we already know going to these new places and meeting new people.”

Condal is exaggerating a bit. There aren’t exactly 18 new characters to get to know in House of the Dragon season 2. But there are still quite a few. Here is a rundown of Alyn, Cregan, Hugh, and the many other fresh faces this season.

Gayle Rankin as Alys Rivers

Alys Rivers will be one of the more fascinating characters introduced to the Game of Thrones mythos in sometime. At first glance, Alys Rivers is just one of many lowborn wenches toiling around The Riverlands (and indeed “Rivers” is the surname given to illegitimate bastards in the region), working as a wet nurse in the massive ruins of Harrenhal castle. But Alys ends up carving her name into Westerosi history in a major way. Some even remember her as a powerful witch.

Gayle Rankin is no stranger to spooky, enigmatic characters, having previously played Sheila the She Wolf on GLOW. Other roles of note for the British actress include Emily Dodson on Perry Mason and Queen Victoria in The Greatest Showman.

Freddie Fox as Ser Gwayne Hightower

While Team Green has some recruiting to do, the backbone of their cause remains the powerful Hightower family from Oldtown to which Hand of the King Otto (Rhys Ifans) and Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke) belong. Joining the fray this year will be Otto’s youngest son and Alicent’s brother, Ser Gwayne Hightower. Gwayne appeared briefly in armor during a tourney in season 1, but now we’ll finally get to see the face beneath the helm.

That face will be portrayed be Freddie Fox, a prolific British actor of the stage and screen. Fox has a recurring role on Slow Horses and was last seen as James Bond author Ian Fleming in 2024’s The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

Simon Russell Beale as Ser Simon Strong

As evidenced by Alys Rivers’ inclusion on this list, Harrenhal is set to be a major location this season. The man given the unenviable task of stewarding and defending the ruined castle is Ser Simon Strong. While Harrenhal is technically House Strong’s possession going into season 2, their position has been tremendously weakened thanks to Larys (Matthew Needham) killing his brother Harwin (Ryan Corr) and his father Lyonel (Gavin Spokes). Poor Simon, who is Larys’ great-uncle, has his work cut out for him.

Simon Russell Beale is a prolific British performer who The Independent once called “the greatest stage actor of his generation.” He’s popped un in films like The Death of Stalin and TV shows like Penny Dreadful.

Tom Bennett as Ulf the White

Ulf the White (later known as Ulf White) is introduced in House of the Dragon season 2 episode 3 as a blowhard at a King’s Landing pub. Ulf claims that he is a “dragonseed” and the offspring of Baelon the Brave, son of King Jaeharys I. That’s just a silly story though, right?

Playing Ulf is Tom Bennett, a British actor who has appeared in Ricky Gervais’ AfterLife and Christopher Guest’s Family Tree.

Abubakar Salim as Alyn of Hull

“Hull” is the name of a small town on the island of Driftmark located under Castle Driftmark and near the shore where ships dock. As such, many inhabitants of Hull work as longshoreman, fisherman, and shipbuilders. One such shipbuilder is the seemingly innocuous Alyn of Hull. As evidenced by the screenshot above, however, Lord Corlys Velaryon will be taking a special interest in young Alyn.

Alyn is played by Abubakar Salim, who is probably best known to genre fans for playing the android “Father” on Max’s charmingly bizarre Raised by Wolves. He was also nominated for a British Academy Games Award for his work as Bayek in Assassin’s Creed Origins.

Clinton Liberty as Addam of Hull

Addam of Hull is Alyn’s brother and is yet another working class schmoe who will find himself swept up in the game of thrones. Playing Addam is Clinton Liberty, who previously appeared in the ITV series Holding.

Tom Taylor as Cregan Stark

It wouldn’t be a Game of Thrones story without at least one Stark. House of the Dragon finally introduces its first proper Lord of Winterfell (old-ass Rickon in the prologue barely counts) in the form of the young Lord Cregan Stark. At the end of season 1, Rhaenyra’s son Jace was dispatched north to sway the Wolves to his mother’s side. History says Jace and Cregan got along just fine. Now we’ll see how House of the Dragon interprets that.

Tom Taylor is no stranger to genre epics, having played Jake Chambers in 2017’s Stephen King adaptation The Dark Tower. British audiences may recognize him as Tom Foster in 2015’s Doctor Foster.

Kieran Bew as Hugh the Hammer

While watching House of the Dragon season 2, you may notice that some characters are introduced for seemingly no reason. Hugh, a lowborn King’s Landing blacksmith, is one such character. If you don’t understand why the show is investing time in this strange bearded man – never fear, it will likely all make sense by season’s end.

Kieran Bew has previously appeared in Max’s Warrior and Starz’ Da Vinci’s Demons. He acted opposite his House of the Dragon co-star Matt Smith in BBC’s The Street.

House of the Dragon season 2 premieres Sunday, June 16 at 9 p.m. ET on HBO.