House of the Dragon is set for a fiery return with its Season 3 opener featuring a famous sea battle, and the man at the center of the action promises it will be “mayhem.”

Steve Toussaint was at SXSW London and shared his thoughts on the episode, which House of the Dragon showrunner last week called “the craziest episode of television ever made.”

It sounds every bit the wild ride, as warring factions of the ruling Targaryen family clash at sea on a strip of water called the Gullet.

Toussaint’s character, Lord Corlys Velaryon, the former Master of Ships known as the Sea Snake, plays a key role in the battle, which is among the biggest naval clashes in all of George R.R. Martin’s sprawling Game of Thrones canon and will be the most explosive yet for the prequel series.

“People who know the story have been excited and waiting for this particular sea battle,” said Toussaint, as he spoke in front of an intimate audience at the Deadline Studio event in east London this week. “Luckily for me, my character and his son [Alyn of Hull, played by Abubakar Salim], are central to that.

“I don’t know what the budget was, but it was a lot. They built three ships, built two tanks – a wet tank and a dry tank – and then they just squirted lots of water cannons at us. We cut people’s heads off, they poured blood on us, and it’s mayhem.”

The episode, which remains untitled for now, debuts on HBO Max on June 21 in the U.S. and a day later (June 22) elsewhere.

Toussaint, who has had starring roles in the likes of Steve’s McQueen’s BBC series Small Axe and Mike Newell pic Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, was speaking during an interview for the Deadline Studio in the UK this week, where SXSW London continues through to June 6. He recalled meeting with Condal and House of the Dragon Season 1 co-showrunner Miguel Sapochnik to discuss Corlys.

“I always think back to the first time that I actually met Ryan and Miguel in person, when I was trying to get the job, and the thing that we spent most of the session talking about was fathers,” said Toussaint.

“I had just played a father in a Steve McQueen project for TV, and they’d seen it. We felt the key to this man, despite the fact that he’s a great sailor and warrior, was that most of his motivation is either to put his wife [Princess Rhaenys, played by Eve Best] on the throne, because he thinks that’s where she should be, and also to secure a legacy for his children and to make sure that his children are safe in this crazy world.”

He talked about Corlys’ bitter story arc, addressing how the character starts as the richest man in Westeros before a series of tragedies “slowly strip him of it all.”

Toussaint, a Black British actor, also addressed unpleasant early backlash against his casting from internet trolls. In the books, the character is head of a white Valyrian family, but Toussaint, HBO and the show’s creators have strongly advocated for a more diverse story and the reception for the family has been broadly positive since the show’s launch.

Asked how he feels the character has been received, Toussaint replied: “I’m not entirely sure, because I don’t pay a lot of attention. Not to get too negative, [but] I know that there was some concern about somebody like me playing the role, so I was aware of that, because they made me aware of that, but then once we started going, my understanding is that he’s quite a popular character. I mean, I’m still here, so I guess so.”

He recalled meeting Black Game of Thrones fans at conventions. “They were so excited about that character being there, about that character being played by me,” he said. “They would say, ‘Oh my god, finally we have somebody we can dress like.'”

Toussaint recently wrote his first screenplay, for C.J. Obasi’s The Blue Butterfly, after being influenced to write while acting in Rwanda ethnic genocide movie Shootin Dogs. The experience had made him want to tell more people about the atrocities that took place in 1994.

The Blue Butterly follows Sentwali (Toussaint), a man haunted by his past who lives a cocooned life driving a limousine through the city, who meets a woman, played by Succession‘s Sanaa Latham.

“We find him in London working as a driver, but he’s not really living,” said Toussaint. “He’s just existing. He meets an American actress, who is played by an American actress, and they may possibly have a relationship, but then past comes back to bite him on the bum, and he has to deal with that.”

Toussaint admitted he was not a natural writer and had found the experience “tough,” but felt rewarded with the outcome. “That’s been a bit of a learning learning curve for me, but I think it’s pretty good.”

What we can say, is Toussaint is unlikely to end up in the House of the Dragon Season 4 writers’ room. “Oh God, no,” he responded to Deadline’s suggestion. “It’s wonderful when you get those scripts. You just go, ‘This is good.’ No, I’m fine.”

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