James Norton reveals Ormund’s original death in House of the Dragon, and it’s sooo much worse

Rejoice, supporters of Rhaenyra Targaryen, for Ormund Hightower has met a glorious death in the finale of House of the Dragon season three.

You know James Norton is an incredible actor because he somehow managed to convince us to hate his gorgeous face for eight weeks. Throughout much of season three of House of the Dragon, Ormund Hightower has been a thorn in the side of the Blacks and Rhaenyra’s claim to the Iron Throne. He was also just creepy, which is reason enough to burn his ass on the battlefield.

Speaking of ass, Ormund was savagely killed by the combined powers of icon Roddy the Ruin and Ulf’s dragon, Silverwing. Roddy got there first, literally stabbing him in the ass before Silverwing finished them both in a blaze of glory. The northman was thrilled to be going out in battle, but Ormund not so much as he begged “no” over and over again.

Satisfying does not begin to describe the moment, but Ormund’s actor James Norton said it was almost even worse.

Credit: HBO

James Norton explains Ormund’s OG death in House of the Dragon

In a new interview with Variety after his death by stabbing and fire, James Norton discussed working on the set of House of the Dragon season three.

“It was a lot of fun! Tommy is a genius; I love working with him. I’ve been a fan of his work for ages. It was a lot of work going into those sequences,” he said.

“This show drills the stunts more than any other show I’ve ever worked on. When you think you’ve finished the stunts and are ready to go, they’re like, ‘See you next week!’ I knew it was going to be a big, delicious death. Before I read the script, there was a lot of chatter around how it was going to happen. I knew it was going to be very different from the books.”

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ORMUND HIGHTOWER IS DEAD… oh diva i'll miss your nasty messy ass#HOTD #HouseOfTheDragon pic.twitter.com/XKU3QBnpmX

— ★ (@POPin4k) August 10, 2026

In the book, Ormund is killed by Roddy during the First Battle of Tumbleton, but they changed it ever so slightly for the show. Even then, the version of Ormund’s violent death we saw was not the first stab at the idea.

Explaining the initial idea, James said: “It happens a lot with this show where they push it to the extreme. When they realise where the boundary is, they pull it back a bit. So there was originally a version where Ormund gets impaled like 20 times!”

But that leaves us with one question: Are we talking stabbed 2o times in the bum? Or a more traditional impaling with sharp sticks?

Either way, gross.

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Featured image credit: HBO