Ned Stark's background is played by Tom Taylor in the second season
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| Image Credit: HBO |
The second season of House of the Dragon will introduce yet another predecessor to the Stark family, whose members are the main protagonists of Game of Thrones. This had already been raised at the end of last season when young Jacaerys was sent by Rhaenyra Targaryen to the North, where he must recruit allies. One of these is Cregan Stark, played by Tom Taylor. Taylor is a young actor, and his biggest role was that of Jake Chambers in the little-celebrated adaptation of The Dark Tower, Stephen King's great book series.
Who is Cregan Stark?
Cregan is the son of Rickon Stark, who made a brief appearance in the first season when Rhaenyra was a child. Played by David Hounslow, Rickon swears to King Viserys I that he will support his daughter as heir to the Iron Throne. It is precisely this oath that Jacaerys will demand from Cregan. The first season of House of the Dragon eventually jumps into the future to age the characters, and in the years that pass between those two moments, Rickon passes away. Cregan then assumed the roles of Lord of Winterfell and Warden of the North.
What is Cregan's role in House of the Dragon like?
Cregan has a long history with the Targaryens, but his first relevant contact is precisely the negotiation with Jacaerys. In the book "Fire and Blood", which is organized as a historical account, there are contradictory narratives about how this meeting unfolded. In the most Black-friendly version, Rhaenrya's side, written in fiction by Maester Munkun, Cregan and Jacaerys hunted, drank, and created a strong friendship. Septon Eustace already said that Jacaerys tried to convert Cregan to the Faith of the Seven, and the "Testimony of the Mushroom", a document that exists in mythology but whose veracity is questionable, says that Cregan only accepted the alliance with the Blacks after he discovered that Jacaerys and his bastard sister, Sara Snow, married in secret.
Initially, he was furious with Jacaerys for sleeping with her. Which of the two versions happened? The Blacks or the Greens? The House of the Dragon has not reenacted events twice and usually offers a definitive answer to the story. Were Cregan and Jacaerys friends, or was their pact, known as The Pact of Ice and Fire, made reluctantly? The answer was: that Cregan and Jacaerys hit it off! We didn't have anything about Stark's bastard sister, he and the Targaryen made the pact without much delay, with Cregan remembering that her father made a vow to Viserys and, by extension, Rhaenyra.