'House of the Dragon': Season 3, Episode 3 First-Look Photos Show a New Era for Westeros

There's a new queen in town. House of the Dragon's second episode of the season saw Rhaenyra (Emma D'Arcy) embrace her birthright as she finally seized King's Landing from Team Green. Meanwhile, Aegon (Tom Glynn-Carney) remained on the lam with Larys (Matthew Needham) in the Westerosi buddy road trip comedy we didn't know we needed, and Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) took control of Harrenhal.

Much like the premiere, "Queen's Landing" was not without bloodshed, with Otto (Rhys Ifans), Jasper (Paul Kennedy), and Simon (Simon Russell Beale) meeting their makers. Alicent (Olivia Cooke), Helaena (Phia Saban), and Jaehaera attempted to flee King's Landing, but Rhaenyra's guards returned them to the Red Keep, only to find our dragon queen on the Iron Throne and a headless Otto on the floor.

Today, HBO unveiled first-look photos for House of the Dragon Season 3, Episode 3, giving us a glimpse of Rhaenyra's reign as queen. From the look of them, it appears the start of her rule won't be as smooth as she'd hoped. In some images, we see Daemon (Matt Smith) interacting with Ormund Hightower (James Norton), presumably to inform the latter about Rhaenyra taking the Iron Throne. Perhaps Ormund will be forced to hand over Daeron, Alicent's youngest child, as a royal prisoner of sorts.

Other photos show Rhaenyra dining with Corlys (Steve Toussaint), Alyn (Abubakar Salim), and Addam (Clinton Liberty) in the Red Keep. Rhaenyra is also pictured sitting in the small council chambers and even standing before a blazing fire. Maybe she's burning all the Team Green banners.

While there's no official synopsis for the highly anticipated third episode, we can at least expect quite a lot of focus on the Red Keep, per the aforementioned first-look photos and the episode preview released by HBO.

House of the Dragon airs new episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT on HBO and HBO Max. Before you go, check out the new photos and teaser below.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jun 30, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published June 30, 2026 at 2:53 PM.