CORONATION Street fans were stunned to see a familiar face pop up in a major US fantasy drama. The much-awaited second series of HBO’s House of the Dragon launched on Monday night. A prequel to the smash-hit Game of Thrones , the show takes place 200 years earlier and follows the Targaryen and Hightower families.
Viewers were surprised in the episode’s opening scenes as a Corrie alumnus made an appearance. James Craven, who featured as a member of the Stark family, formerly played Aaron Sandford in the ITV soap. Introduced as a member of a diabetics support group, Aaron starts dating Summer Spellman (Harriet Bibby) although his arc took a dark turn after he raped her best friend Amy Barlow (Elle Mulvaney).
Aaron had flirted with Amy following an argument with Summer , which in turn had stemmed from sharing their personal problems with his ex-girlfriend. Although Amy had been at first receptive to the advances, she passed out before being able to give further consent. With the young man denying what he’d done, Tracy Barlow’s daughter took to social media to reveal what had happened.
Aaron’s father Eric (Craig Cheetham) sued Amy for libel but this was later dropped and Aaron departed Weatherfield with his dad. A year after his on-screen exit from Corrie aired , James’ House of the Dragon character was in very different territory. The HBO episode started off in Winterfell while viewers heard a voiceover explaining how the selection process worked for men to become pa.