House of the Dragon star Matt Smith questions trigger warnings

Smith isn’t the first actor to speak out about “trigger warnings” this year.

Judi Dench previously confessed she was surprised to learn theatre audiences were “routinely being warned about potentially distressing content, including abuse, violence, and loud noises”.

Smith’s comments come after viewers were left horrified after an explicit sex scene aired on the latest episode of the Game of Thrones prequel, House of the Dragon.

While fans of the HBO fantasy series are accustomed to seeing X-rated moments on the show’s original series, the spinoff has been relatively tame - an episode when viewers were confronted with scenes of one character performing oral sex on another.

In the episode, King Aegon II Targaryen (played by Tom Glynn-Carney) brought his team of soldiers to a brothel to enjoy a night out. The arrogant leader then began ripping open curtains to expose the various activities being performed at the establishment before the cameras stopped on one woman engaged in a sex act.

While the series is known to push boundaries, fans were still caught off-guard by the graphic scene, with some even wondering why the scene in question was allowed to air.

“I guess a prosthetic counts. That couldn’t have been real. Looked fake,” one tweeted, while another wrote: “Wow, that was very in your face. I was expecting to see sex but didn’t count on that. The show never ceases to amaze me.”

‘Uhhhhhh that [sex act] was front and centre,” added another, while one wondered: “I’m really surprised they were able to let that on air.”

Season two of House of the Dragon is currently screening on Neon in New Zealand.