The Battle at Rook's Rest was the most spectacular moment of House of the Dragon season 2 so far, with three dragons fighting to the death high in the sky above Lord Staunton's family seat.
As the fourth episode of the new series — title "A Dance of Dragons" — opened, Ser Cristan Cole and the Greens attacked the castle in broad daylight, knowing Rhaenyra Targareyen would likely send a dragon to defend it.
She eventually decided to send Princess Rhaenys and her steed Meleys, yet the dragonrider had no idea she was walking into a trap and that Prince Aemond and his mighty beast, Vhagar, were lying in wait.
What Ser Cristan and Aemond hadn't counted on was the arrival of King Aegon on his dragon Sunfyre and the three beasts did battle over Rook's Rest, in a duel that left Rhaenys dead and Aegon badly injured.
Yet before the dragons arrived on the scene, we saw Ser Cristan and the Green forces attacking Rook's Rest from the cover of a forest on high ground overlooking the castle.
That scene was actually shot in Bourne Wood in the English county of Surrey, however, it wasn't the first time the location had been used as a film set, with the opening scene of hit movie Gladiator also being shot there.
In Ridley Scott's Oscar-winning film, Bourne Wood doubled as Germania, with Russell Crowe leading a Roman army as General Maximus (see above).
“Filming in the same place as Gladiator was really special,” says Fabien Frankel, who plays Ser Cristan Cole. “I mean, that’s cinematic history and we were filming on the same ground. I had to pinch myself.”
The forest sure is a popular location for filmmakers, with shows such as Citadel and The Witcher, plus Michael Bay movie Transformers: The Last Knight also using parts of it for a backdrop in recent years.
Meanwhile executive producer Melissa Bernstein has revealed the battle itself took several weeks to film, with 250 extras used to play the army of greens and Rook's Rest's black defenders.
“The scale and scope of the production," she says. "The heavy visual effects, the period element — there’s so much complexity and specificity which made it a wonderful and incredible challenge.”
Creating the dragon duel was also an enormous task for all involved, especially for Eve Best who plays the doomed Princess Rhaenys.
“I spent every day for about two weeks on the bronco — and we were doing all kinds of wild moves," she explains. “At one point it had to look like we were doing 360-degree turns and they were having to simulate that somehow.
"I remember we’d done a particularly big loop and I was on the buck basically perpendicular to the ground, clinging on for all I was worth, and the move finished, they shouted “cut” & the buck stopped right where it was — perpendicular to the ground - and I was hanging there like a prawn on the side of a ship feebly shouting ‘Help! Help! Get me down!'"
