Abubakar Salim channels Kratos from God of War in House of the Dragon

Published Jun 14, 2026, 10:00 AM EDT

“Kratos is a man who has also been wronged by his father, who is trying to start anew with a family, who has only felt and seen rage and felt wronged by his lineage,” Salim told Polygon during a virtual roundtable interview. “There’s a lot to unpack there and [find] similarities with Alyn. Alyn’s power comes from rage — this kind of unkempt anger — and I think it’s dangerous. In moments of crisis, or in moments of fighting, he taps into that.”

Kratos is the son of Zeus. In the original games, he served the Greek gods before murdering Ares and claiming his title as the God of War. Meanwhile, in House of the Dragon, Alyn is the bastard son of Lord Corlys Velaryon (Steve Toussaint) and loyally serves as a sailor for House Velaryon.

Kratos later started a new life and family in Midgard, where he sought to put his violent past behind him. Likewise, Salim says Alyn struggles to handle his resentment even as he sees the potential to build a new relationship with Corlys, who tries to bond with him in the season 2 finale.

“A lot of the time when you see him, he keeps to himself, just does his job, does whatever he needs to do because he knows that there is something in there that he doesn’t want to let out,” Salim says. “But you see that at the Gullet, and you see a little bit of it bubbling when he has the go at Corlys in [season 2] episode 8.”

The Battle of the Gullet serves as the centerpiece of the House of the Dragon season premiere, an epic naval battle where Alyn finds himself in a brutal fight with the pirate Admiral Sharako Lohar (Abigail Thorn).

“Abigail is a force of nature,” Salim says. “We both had this agreement of let’s make this as brutal and angry and as epic as we can. We’re both nerds, so we were both channeling some form of character or beast. I was very much leaning into Kratos that whole time. It was like God of War. Pull this in. Kill whatever I can. It was really something.”

House of the Dragon season 3 premieres on HBO on June 21. New episodes release Sundays through Aug. 9.