Matt Smith, who plays the fiery Daemon Targaryen, recalls sustaining a face injury while practicing a fight scene for HBO’s House of the Dragon.

House of the Dragon star Matt Smith reveals how he ended up with a bloody face injury while filming the hit Game of Thrones spinoff. Premiering in summer 2022, House of the Dragon chronicles the Targaryen civil war that takes place more than a hundred years before the events of the mothership series. The spinoff features a handful of big battles and smaller skirmishes, many of which involve Smith’s violent character, Daemon Targaryen.

In a recent video for Max, as the House of the Dragon season 2 release date approaches, Smith and costar Fabien Frankel (Ser Criston Cole) react to scenes from the show.

At the start of the video, the pair take a look at their fight scene from the show’s premiere, and Frankel recalls that he accidentally struck Smith in the face with a sword. Check out their comments about the moment below:

Fabian Frankel: “We learnt it all at Leavesden, which is where we shoot, but we didn’t know each other. And I hit you in the face with a sword, and you were bleeding in the rehearsal.”

Matt Smith: “Yeah, it was here, wasn’t it? [Points next to his left eye]. ‘Cause we were just going for it. It’s like learning a ballet, isn’t it? Just with swords. Sword ballet.

Will House Of The Dragon Feature More Action?

Game Of Thrones’ Earlier Seasons Showed The Power Of Using Action Sparingly

Game of Thrones deployed scenes of action strategically early on its eight-season run, but the overall intensity and frequency of bloody fights increased as the show neared its conclusion. House of the Dragon season 1 struck something of a middle ground between the early and late seasons of its predecessor in terms of the amount of action and spectacle. While it seems like season 2 will generally continue this trend, the House of the Dragon season 1 finale does tease that audiences could be in store for a bloodier season 2.

Crucially, the show’s debut outing ends with the death of Lucerys (Elliot Grihault), Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) son. The final image of the finale is of Rhaenyra staring straight ahead, distraught and filled with anger, setting season 2 up to fully explore the conflict between her and Alicent (Olivia Cooke). House of the Dragon season 2 trailers have been careful not to give too much away so far, but at least one battle in a forest location has been teased, as well as more dragon action.

Some of Game of Thrones’ later battle sequences, like the Battle of Hardhome and the Battle of the Bastards, are some of the show’s best episodes, but the series does earn these moments and spends multiple seasons building up to them. Early seasons of the show also proved that conversations and quiet moments of bloodshed can be just as powerful as the big battle scenes. The positive House of the Dragon reviews would suggest that season 1 has struck this same balance, something that hopefully continues into season 2.