“Less Scope To It”: Game Of Thrones’ Samwell Tarly Actor Explains Not Watching House Of The Dragon

John Bradley, who played Samwell Tarly for all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, explains why he hasn’t watched House of the Dragon yet.

Game of Thrones actor John Bradley explains why he has not watched House of the Dragon. Bradley, who played Samwell Tarly for all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, is not the only actor from the original series who has chosen not to watch the prequel. Others include Lena Headey, who played Cersei Lannister, and Emilia Clarke, who played Daenerys Targaryen, despite House of the Dragon revolving around the civil war fought between the Targaryen ancestors.
While discussing his new Netflix series 3 Body Problem with the New York Post, which Bradley worked on with Game of Thrones showrunners Daviod Benioff and D.B. Weiss, he clarifies why he has not yet watched House of the Dragon. In addition to his personal reasons for not tuning into the critically acclaimed prequel series, Bradley highlights a key difference between Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Read his explanation below:
I’ve still not watched it. ‘Game of Thrones’ feels like it ended a bit too recently for me to watch, but I’ve seen bits of it.

It feels like a bit of a different show, I have to say. ‘Game of Thrones’ had so many characters in it spanning all across the Seven Kingdoms. There was much more scope for all of humanity to exist there.

There were these very broken characters. There were dangerous characters. There were characters that had a bit of comedy about them. There were strong characters, and wounded characters, and evil characters. And ‘House of the Dragon’ feels more focused on one particular area of the narrative, and one particular area of humanity. So, it just feels like there’s slightly less scope to it.

But, everyone that I’ve spoken to loves it. I will get around to it one day. It feels a bit like the comparisons [to ‘GoT’] are slightly too easily made now for me to be able to really invest in it properly.
John Bradley Highlights The Difference In Scope Between Game Of Thrones & House Of The Dragon
Game of Thrones traveled all over the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros and across various locations in Essos as well. This makes the fantastical universe feel vast and provides opportunities to show how all manners of individuals lived, from wealthy lords and ladies to commoners just trying to survive in the midst of war. House of the Dragon season 1 is largely set in King’s Landing. Even when it does venture out of King’s Landing to Dragonstone or the Stepstones, the focus mostly remains on the Targaryens and the royal family.
This makes the universe feel smaller and less representative of different individuals than Game of Thrones did. Game of Thrones’ cast had a healthy balance of likable and unlikable characters, along with a variety of dramatic and comedic characters. The likable Samwell Tarly and Arya Stark were balanced out by the likes of the evil Joffrey Baratheon and Ramsay Bolton, along with more ambiguous characters like Varys and Melisandre.

Meanwhile, House of the Dragon’s characters are generally far more unlikable, making it more difficult to get invested in some of them. This works for the story House of the Dragon is telling, with these characters’ greed and selfish ambition triggering the Dance of Dragons and marking the beginning of the end for the mighty Targaryen dynasty. House of the Dragon achieves what it sets out to do, but its locations and the types of characters it explores feel as though it has less scope than Game of Thrones.