Game Of Thrones fans were treated to a huge easter egg (quite literally!) in the latest episode of House Of The Dragon.
In the latest instalment of the Game Of Thrones spin-off – which is set nearly two centuries before the events of the original fantasy epic – Rhaenyra Targaryen (played by Emma D’Arcy) sends her children away to the Vale to keep them safe.
She tasks her step-daughter Rhaena Targaryen with accompanying them, along with their young dragons Tyraxes and Stormcloud and four dragon eggs.
Super-fans might have already spotted that three of these eggs – the gold, green and reddish-black ones – actually match up exactly with those Daenerys Targaryen receives from Illyrio Mopatis in the very first episode of Game Of Thrones.
And it turns out that this isn’t just a fan theory – they are, indeed, the very same eggs.
“Those are Daenerys’ eggs,” the episode’s director Geeta Vasant Patel confirmed to Mashable.
“All of us who work on this show are big Game Of Thrones fans, so it was very exciting to shoot that scene.”
In Game Of Thrones, the eggs later hatch to become Daenerys’ dragons Drogon, Rhaegal and Viserion.
This does introduce a slight departure from George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood book source material, in which it’s implied that Daenerys’ eggs arrived in Essos long before the Dance of the Dragons.
Fans of the show have been sharing their reactions to the crossover online, with one writing on X: “The fact Rhaena really did end up protecting the Targaryen legacy. She had the most important job.”
While the easter egg indeed connects Daenerys’ own story to the House Of The Dragon, the actor who played the Queen of Dragons, Emilia Clarke, recently admitted that she can’t quite bring herself to watch the new show.
“I still can’t,” she told People magazine. “I just don’t know what it is. I feel so content and happy with what my experience was, that I think watching the new one would just feel so odd, I think.”
However, she added: “I really do fully support the entire thing and everyone who’s made it, and it’s beautiful how successful it’s been. It’s absolutely amazing.”
House Of The Dragon continues on Now and Sky Atlantic at 9pm on Monday night.