Emma D’Arcy, Master of ‘Dragon’

On a recent morning in London, the British actor Emma D’Arcy was dealing with “an emergency.”

D’Arcy was in a studio, rerecording voice-over as Rhaenyra Targaryen for the second season of HBO’s hit “Game of Thrones” prequel, “House of the Dragon.” It was the fourth time the actor, who uses they and them pronouns, had recorded this particular bit of dialogue, and each time they were confronted by an enormous screen showing their face, surrounded by unfinished special effects.

It was like a rather brutal “Groundhog Day,” they said, adding wryly that “the process of repression happens very quickly when you’ve got a job to do.”

As the breakout star of “House of the Dragon,” which returns for its second season on Sunday, D’Arcy, 31, has had to adjust to seeing their image blown up. “Emma is literally the face on the poster,” Ryan Condal, a “Dragon” creator and showrunner, said in a phone interview, adding that he couldn’t imagine what it must be like “taking that on but also still being an artist, and a serious student of the craft.”

D’Arcy has been grappling with this tension since “Dragon” first aired in 2022, when it became the most-watched premiere in HBO’s history. Set approximately 200 years before “Game of Thrones,” the show centers on the Targaryen dynasty before its dramatic fall. D’Arcy’s headstrong dragon rider, Rheanyra, who must defend her claim to the Iron Throne, quickly emerged as a fan favorite.

In the coming eight-episode season, D’Arcy is in every episode, whereas in the first 10-episode season, Milly Alcock played a younger version of Rhaenyra in six.

“What I realized retrospectively is, four episodes — mwah!” D’Arcy said, miming a chef’s kiss as they sat cross-legged in a chair at the Royal Court Theater in London. The second season was more emotionally difficult, too. At the end of Season 1, Rhaenyra’s son Luke is killed by a dragon, and so D’Arcy’s character is “stricken with grief,” they said. “She’s made an island by her loss,” radiating “a violent, vile feeling — like a hatred feeling.”