‘House of the Dragon’ season 3 casts Tommy Flanagan, Dan Fogler (exclusive)

As filming officially begins on House of the Dragon season 3, Entertainment Weekly can exclusively reveal two new crucial pieces of casting. 

Tommy Flanagan, known for roles in Sons of Anarchy, Gladiator, and Braveheart, will enter the playing field of the Targaryen civil war as Ser Roderick Dustin, the Lord of Barrowton and the head of House Dustin in the north who goes by the nickname “Roddy the Ruin.” EW can also confirm Dan Fogler of Fantastic Beasts and A Complete Unknown fame in the role of Ser Torrhen Manderly, a knight of House Manderly in the north.

Flanagan and Fogler join previously announced season 3 newcomer James Norton as Ormund Hightower.

“I don’t want to say much because I think this is one of those truly memorable Game of Thrones characters, and I’m very excited to bring him into the fold,” House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal exclusively tells EW. “But he is a fixture in Fire & Blood, and I think he’s one of those true fan favorites. I’m very, very proud of the role that we’ve written.” 

Condal calls Flanagan “a delight and a thrill,” adding, “I’m so excited to see what he’s going to do with the character.”

In Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin’s fictionalized history of the Targaryen empire, Ser Roderick Dustin enters the story as “a warrior so old and hoary men called him Roddy the Ruin.” He leads an army of 2,000 seasoned and savage northmen, who are collectively dubbed the Winter Wolves — all “grizzled graybeards in old mail and ragged skins,” as Martin described on the page. 

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Condal declines to divulge the specifics of how the show adapts Roddy the Ruin and his Winter Wolves beyond the fact that his creative team had fun writing for them. “I would like to say we’ve brought some northern spirit into our southern base tale here,” he says.

As for Ser Manderly, Fire & Blood described the figure as clever, well-spoken, and corpulent. He is the second son of Desmond Manderly, the lord of White Harbour and head of House Manderly.

Season 2 of House of the Dragon already introduced a different northman, Tom Taylor’s Cregan Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and the head of House Stark who fights in support of Queen Rhaenyra Targaryen (Emma D’Arcy).

House of the Dragon season 3, which Condal is treating as the penultimate season ahead of the fourth and final outing, will also return D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Matt Smith, Steve Toussaint, Tom Glynn-Carney, Ewan Mitchell, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Needham, Fabien Frankel, Sonoyo Mizuno, Freddie Fox, Harry Collett, Phia Saban, Phoebe Campbell, Bethany Antonia, Jefferson Hall, Abubakar Salim, Clinton Liberty, Tom Bennett, Kieran Bew, Gayle Rankin, and Kurt Egyiawan.

Flanagan most recently appeared in Netflix’s Nicole Kidman-led The Perfect Couple and the Russell Crowe movie Sleeping Dogs. The latter marked a reunion years after Flanagan played Crowe’s righthand man in the original Gladiator (2000). Flanagan gained a new audience with his portrayal of Filip “Chibs” Telford in the titular motorcycle gang on Sons of Anarchy and spinoff series Mayans M.C. He’s also no stranger to HBO, having appeared as “fixer” Martin Connells on Westworld season 3. 

Fogler landed his big break in 2016’s Harry Potter prequel film Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. He starred as Jacob Kowalski, a muggle and aspiring baker who falls in love with witch Queenie Goldstein (Alison Sudol). Fogler reprised the role for the two sequels, 2018’s The Crimes of Grindelwald and 2022’s The Secrets of Dumbledore, alongside Sudol, Eddie Redmayne, and Katherine Waterston. He more recently played Bob Dylan’s manager opposite Timothée Chalamet in A Complete Unknown.