Matt Smith Admits ‘House Of The Dragon’ Is No ‘Game Of Thrones’

Matt Smith is best known for portraying the Eleventh Doctor in BBC’s “Doctor Who.” Since then, he has also appeared in “The Crown” and in 2021’s “Last Night in Soho,” which hit theatres on October 29.

He also recently teased that he almost had a role in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.” In a recent interview on the “Happy, Sad, Confused” podcast, Smith revealed that his character would have “made a big shift in the history of the franchise” although he did not confirm or deny rumors that he was allegedly set to take on the role of Palpatine’s son.

Smith is now set to star in the highly-anticipated “Game of Thrones” prequel series “House of the Dragon,” which is based on the book “Fire & Blood” by George R.R. Martin.

Although Smith hopes that the show does well, he is well aware that it will probably never make the kind of pop culture impact that its predecessor made on audiences when it first premiered over a decade ago on April 17, 2011.

In a new interview, Smith admitted that when they set out to make the show, they wanted to create a series that was “entertaining on lots of different levels.” He also added that “House of the Dragon” has a similar scope and ambition to “Thrones” in “many respects.”

He added, “Obviously, you’re never going to be able to re-create the success of ‘Game of Thrones,’ because that was a very particular point in time. It was its own unique entity.”

Knowing that his new role was going to be different from what fans have come to expect from Westeros in the past actually made it easier for Smith, as it allowed him to put his own “spin on it.”

Comparing it to various adaptions of Shakespeare plays, he continued, “It's like to a certain degree, what does anyone bring to a Shakespeare play or something that's been done before? You have to bring your own emotional makeup and your own identity and your own spin and take on things and, you know... throw some paint at the wall and see what sticks.”

Showrunner Miguel Sapochnik is ready to break with traditions set by its predecessor by making “House of the Dragon” a show of its own.

Admitting that he isn’t trying to “reinvent the wheel,” he told The Hollywood Reporter that his prequel “has its own tone that will evolve and emerge over the course of the show.”

However, he still thinks it’s important to “pay respects and homage to the original series.” He added, “We’re standing on the shoulders of that show and we’re only here because of that show.”

He continued, “This is something else, and should be something else. It's a different crew, different people, different tone. Hopefully, it will be seen as something else. But it will have to earn that — it won't happen overnight. Hopefully, fans will enjoy it for the thing that it is. We'll be lucky if we ever come close to what the original show was, so we're just putting our heads down and getting on with it and hoping what we come up with is worthy of having a Game of Thrones title.”

“House of the Dragon” is expected to debut on HBO Max on January 1, 2022.