House of the Dragon star hits back at Blood and Cheese backlash | Television and radio | Showbiz and television

House of the Dragon star Sam C Wilson has hit back at complaints about a controversial change made to George RR Martin’s book at the start of season two.

In the first, A Son for a Son, Sam plays Blood, who is hired by Daemon Targaryen (played by Matt Smith) alongside a rat catcher nicknamed Cheese (Mark Stobbart) to kill the son of Queen Helaena (Phia Saban), Aemond (Ewan Mitchell).

However, they fail to find him in the Red Keep and enter Helaena’s room to kill her much younger son, Jaehaerys.

Although the moment was shocking for most HBO viewers, a small faction of fans were disappointed that the death happened off-screen.

The scene also differed greatly from Martin’s book Fire and Blood, in which Blood and Cheese gives Helaena a choice of which child she wants to die. She chooses her two-year-old son Maelor, but they go against her wishes, slaughtering Jaehaerys and mocking the younger child knowing that his mother would rather he die.

This isn’t the first time the franchise has been criticized by die-hard A Song of Ice and Fire fans.

But, speaking exclusively to Express.co.uk, Sam was adamant that producers made the right decision for the scene given they were working with very young actors.

“The thing is, you do scenes like that and you have kids on set,” he said.

“For me, I felt like that was just not an option. We’re here to do a job and make everyone feel comfortable. And I was glad that we did.”

“We were a bit stupid, big clowns with the children and all the bad things that were said, they weren’t there.”

Sam maintained that the welfare of the young performers was the top priority during filming, and that they were only on set when they absolutely needed to be.

He also admitted that accurately adapting the scene from the book or making Jaehaerys’ death more explicit could have been a very risky move for HBO.

“I think they made the right choice,” the actor continued. “It’s still obvious what happened.

“You know exactly what’s going on, I don’t think you can accuse them of taking the easy way out.

“But they did it in a way that prioritized the well-being of the children, and they really hope that fans can forgive this slight amendment in the interest of keeping everyone in real life happy and healthy.

“And beyond that, I think we achieved what we needed to achieve. I just want the fans to be happy with how I brought Blood to life.

“Without the fandom, it’s nothing, I find it incredible. I can’t believe I’m a part of it forever now. I hope I’ve made them proud. It’s a shame that people are disappointed, but I urge them to think about the concrete reasons why this had to happen.

House of the Dragon season 2 continues Sundays on HBO and Mondays on Sky and NOW.