House of the Dragon prosthetic designer talks crafting props for Viserys’ disease

It took a while for King Viserys Targaryen to pass away in House of the Dragon episode 8. Over the various time skips in each episode, his health progressively deteriorated. He should be in his late forties, yet he appeared older than his years. And it took a great amount of skill and effort to prepare the props that showed how much worse his state had become in the show.

King Viserys’ prosthetics grew more complicated with each episode

House of the Dragon Prosthetics designer Barrie Gower, who has been with the team since Game of Thrones, told Deadline, “King Viserys’ disease was reminiscent of some of the prosthetics we created for Game of Thrones, such as The Mountain who also wore decomposing prosthetics. We were able to tell Viserys’ story in several stages, from very subtle prosthetics to extensive facial and body appliances.”

Viserys’ prosthetics were designed in five stages

Up to the most severe stage of his illness, which is shown in “The Lord of Tides,” Viserys’ makeup went through five phases. Gower claims that his group of artists employed “subtle thin prosthetic textures and artwork, hair-punched silicone bald pates and extensive silicone facial and body appliances” to produce the appearance.

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