Emma D’Arcy Is Thrilled With Queen Rhaenyra’s New Trousers

Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO

In the first season of HBO’s House of the Dragon, Queen Rhaenyra’s life is full of color: Her gowns are green or light blue or deep red, her ears and neck adorned with shimmering gems. Gone are Rhaeyrna’s vivid gowns in the second season — House Targaryen is going to war against itself, and there is no time for lush fabrics and flowing skirts. When we meet Rhaenyra, played as an adult by actor Emma D’Arcy, in the first episode of season two, she is overcome with grief; her wardrobe — solid, sturdy blacks, deep grays — matches her mood, binding her to shadow. Though Rhaenyra’s long been hesitant to go to war against her former friend Alicent (Olivia Cooke) and her nephews, she no longer has a choice.

Outside the show, however, D’Arcy makes a ton of choices when it comes to their wardrobe both on and off the red carpet. Whether they’re in track pants and a big shirt or a sparkly Celine suit, the House of the Dragon actor pushes our understanding of high and low, leaning into compelling silhouettes with big shoulders or embracing their inner punk with a sleek pair of leather pants. That’s not too far off from their character Queen Rhaenyra on House of the Dragon, whose season-two wardrobe gets one big new edition. “She got some trousers this year! That was pretty thrilling for me,” D’Arcy said recently at the show’s New York City premiere.

The beginning of the show’s second season sees Rhaenyra at a point of great loss, adopting a more black palette with a textured fabric that resembles scales (like a dragon’s might), or even chain mail. D’Arcy found that there was evidence of Rhaenyra’s effort and grief in her new looks. “What’s amazing is getting to have conversations about what the character might be wearing at different points, how this journey of texture and shape might shift from something fluid to something more structured,” they said. “You start to think about what one craves from clothes. Rhaenyra is a person who is so wracked with grief at the start of the season and needs a splint, almost, and the clothes have a structure that prop her up like an exoskeleton.” That philosophy might also be applied to D’Arcy’s bedazzled suit from the world premiere: a look that grants them the power to really shine.