'House of the Dragon': HBO casts Alys Rivers, 3 other roles for Season 2

April 24 (UPI) -- HBO has cast its Alys Rivers for House of the Dragon Season 2.

Gayle Rankin will play the character, a healer and resident of Harrenhal, in the new season of the fantasy drama.

Simon Russell Beale, Freddie Fox and Abubakar Salim have also joined the cast.

Beale will play Ser Simon Strong, the castellan of Harrenhal and a great-uncle of Lord Larys (Matthew Needham), with Fox as Ser Gywane Hightower, the son of Otto Hightower (Rhys Ifans) and the brother of Queen Alicent (Olivia Cooke), and Salim as Alyn of Hall, a sailor in the Valaryon fleet.

Returning stars include Matt Smith, Emma D'Arcy, Eve Best, Steve Toussaint, Fabien Frankel, Ewan Mitchell, Tom Glynn-Carney and Sonoya Mizuno.

House of the Dragon is based on the George R.R. Martin book Fire & Blood, which recounts the history of House Targaryen. The show takes place about 200 years before the events of the HBO series Game of Thrones, based on Martin's Song of Ice and Fire book series.

Martin co-created the series with Ryan Condal, who also serves as showrunner.

HBO has yet to announce a premiere date for Season 2. Production on the new episodes started this month.