Meet the Lord of Oldtown: ‘House of the Dragon’ casts James Norton as Ormund Hightower

The Lord of Oldtown has officially entered the Dance of Dragons.

House of the Dragon has cast English actor James Norton as Ormund Hightower for season 3, Entertainment Weekly has confirmed. Variety first reported the news.

While Ormund has been mentioned throughout the second season of the Game of Thrones prequel, he will now make his onscreen debut in the upcoming season.

Ormund is a major player on Team Green in the civil war for the Iron Throne, as he’s the nephew of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans), and the cousin to Dowager Queen Alicent Hightower (Olivia Cooke) and Ser Gwayne Hightower (Freddie Fox). Ormund holds the title of Lord of Oldtown and “is presently leading the Hightower host in a march on King’s Landing to support his house against Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy),” according to an official character description.

Norton has previously been seen on HBO on The Nevers, and he’s best known for starring on the BBC crime drama Happy Valley, for which he earned a BAFTA nomination in 2015. His other TV and film credits include Grantchester, McMafia, Doctor Who, Death Comes to Pemberley, Black Mirror, War & Peace, Little Women, Bob Marley: One Love, and Flatliners. He’s an accomplished stage actor as well.

House of the Dragon, from showrunner Ryan Condal, adapts Game of Thrones mastermind George R.R. Martin‘s Fire & Blood book, telling the story of House Targaryen 200 years before the events of the original HBO juggernaut. Season 2 ended with a lot of stage-setting for what’s expected to be an explosive Battle of the Gullet showdown now that Rhaenyra has seven adult dragons and Daemon’s (Matt Smith) re-pledged loyalty and armies.

Condal previously said the show’s creative team held back that highly anticipated book moment from the season 2 finale because they “were trying to give the Gullet, which is arguably the most anticipated — well, I would say maybe the second most anticipated action event of Fire & Blood — trying to give it the time and the space that it deserves.” He added that the series is “largely a metaphor for nuclear conflict.”

“If season 2 was the arming of the sides and the cold war with moments of actual conflict and explosion, I think season 3 you do start to see things boil over from here to the end of the war,” Condal explained. “As always with this show, there’s going to be giant moments of spectacle but also real moments of surprise and character nuance that we’re very much looking forward to. Some of my favorite moments in the book, just as a reader, that I’m excited to adapt as a dramatist, are yet to come in the story.”