'House of the Dragon' returns with grand spectacle

The upcoming third season of ''House of the Dragon'' is already making headlines before its premiere, with producers revealing that the show set a world record during filming of its highly anticipated opening episode.

According to details shared during the series' panel at the SXSW London festival, the production achieved a record by igniting 23 stunt performers simultaneously in a single take.

The feat forms part of the ambitious staging of the Battle of the Gullet, a pivotal conflict in the Targaryen civil war and one of the deadliest naval battles in the history of Westeros. The battle will feature in the Season 3 premiere, scheduled to air on June 21.

Producers said the sequence required massive resources, including 15,000 stunt crowd participants, 3,500 props and 25 tons of propane. Filming also involved a wet tank, a dry tank, an underwater tank, four ship sets and more than three million litres of water.

Showrunner and co-creator Ryan Condal described the action scenes as unprecedented for television. Speaking at the panel, Condal said viewers would see sequences unlike anything previously attempted on the small screen.

He noted that the scale of construction required for the episode was enormous but necessary to bring one of the franchise's most important battles to life. Comparing the challenge to depicting the famous Helm's Deep battle from 'The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers', Condal said such a defining moment could not simply be referenced and had to be shown in full.

The producer also teased that the Battle of the Gullet is only the beginning of the action to come. He described Season 3 as the most action-packed chapter of the series so far. The new season of 'House of the Dragon' premieres on June 21 on HBO and HBO Max.