What Abigail Thorn’s Casting Means for ‘House of the Dragon’ Season 2

Abigail Thorn is currently making history as the first out trans actor in Star Wars, thanks to her role in the new Disney+ series The Acolyte. Ahead of the premiere, Thorn revealed that she’s also joined the cast of another major franchise series: House of the Dragon.

Thorn announced her casting in House of the Dragon season 2 on social media, where she revealed that she’ll be playing Sharako Lohar—a name that won’t mean anything to those unfamiliar with the deeper lore of Westeros.

Sharako Lohar is mentioned only briefly in Fire & Blood, George R.R. Martin’s history of House Targaryen published in 2018. Lohar is an admiral from Lys charged with commanding an epic fleet for the Triarchy—the alliance of the free cities of Lys, Myr, and Tyrosh, part of the Valyrian Freehold that once flourished throughout much of Essos. The Triarchy allied with King Aegon II Targaryen, and was were known as the Kingdom of the Three Daughters or, when spoken of in derogatory terms, the Kingdom of the Three Whores.

As commander of the Triarchy, Lohar led a fleet of 90 Lysene, Myrish, and Tyroshi warships during the Westerosi civil war. In the interest of avoiding spoilers, I’ll spare you further details, but here’s what you need to know about Sharako Lohar with regards to House of the Dragon: Lohar led one of the most violent and bloodiest sea battles in the history of Westeros—a promising detail for fans of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, and especially those of us hoping to see another Wildfire-level battle on the latter.

Lohar’s gender wasn’t initially given in the text, but when Martin published Fire & Blood, he added a few new lines about Lohar, including the pronoun “he.” Which means that Thorn’s casting is a bit of a gender-swap, and given how dominant the women are in this series, it’s one that makes a lot of sense.