‘House of the Dragon’: Elliott and Luke Tittensor on That Brutal Duel

This interview contains spoilers for Season 2, Episode 2 of “House of the Dragon.”

“One soul in two bodies.” That’s how Ser Arryk Cargyll (Luke Tittensor), sworn member of the Kingsguard of Aegon II Targaryen (Tom Glynn-Carney), refers to himself and his identical twin, Erryk (Elliott Tittensor). But Ser Erryk is now a member of the Queensguard, knights dedicated to the service of Aegon’s half sister and rival for the Iron Throne, Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy). With this week’s episode, their lifelong unity comes to a bloody end.

In Episode 2 of “House of the Dragon” Season 2, Arryk is dispatched by his vindictive commander, Ser Criston Cole (Fabien Frankel), to infiltrate Rhaenyra’s stronghold, Dragonstone, and assassinate her while posing as his own twin, one of her personal protectors. The ruse is exposed in horrific fashion when brother attacks brother; Erryk triumphs and saves his queen but kills himself rather than live with the pain of the act. As an allegory for the senseless squandering of human life in Rhaenyra and Aegon’s so-called Dance of the Dragons, it is a hard one to miss.

Yet, when it comes time to thank the actors for a chance to pick their brains about their brutal final duel for the fate of Queen Rhaenyra, I catch myself referring to their brain, singular. It speaks to the effectiveness of the Tittensor twins’ work as the doomed knights that their “one soul in two bodies” mentality is catching.

The brothers are self-effacing about having landed these pivotal roles, though. “I’m not sure how big the pool of identical twins that they had to look in was, but when our agents came knocking about the job, we already had the long hair and the beards,” Elliott said in a joint video call on Thursday. “In their eyes, we were pretty much ready to step into it.”

These are edited excerpts from the conversation.

I’m never quite sure whether to offer my congratulations or my condolences in interviews like these.

LUKE TITTENSOR We’re happy about it! To be involved with a project of this kind, and then to be able to portray a twins relationship in such an amazing world, a world that we’re fans of … These sorts of jobs in this industry are few and far between.