'Dragon Prince' Season 2 Theories: Is Harrow Alive? The Creators Respond
"People are asking such great questions."
Twenty two minutes into a half-hour interview with the co-creators of The Dragon Prince, I finally got to the one question I really wanted to ask. Not as a journalist, but as a fan of the Netflix animated series.
Is King Harrow still alive?
Let’s back up for a second here. In the first few episodes of The Dragon Prince’s first season, King Harrow decides to face the consequences of humanity’s war with an army of elves and dragons. When his adviser, Viren, proposes using black magic to transfer Harrow’s soul into a bird as a team of elf assassins prepares to strike, the king declines. He accepts his fate, and his death sets the entire story in motion. Or does it?
With The Dragon Prince Season 2 finally set to premiere in just under a week, fans still debate whether Harrow might have actually had a change of heart and switched bodies with the bird. It would be a huge revelation, with wide-ranging implications for the show’s future. Unfortunately, the shows creators, Aaron Ehasz and Justin Richmond, are staying tight lipped. They won’t confirm that Harrow’s still alive, but they don’t deny it either.
“We do not want to say something to fans about that theory” Ehasz tells Inverse.
“They’re going to have to dangle on that one,” Richmond adds, referring to the legions of fans still unsure about Harrow’s fate.
It’s possible the showrunners don’t know themselves, or simply haven’t decided yet. It’s also possible the idea didn’t even occur to them until after some fan thought it up. Because Ehasz and Richmond definitely know about this theory and the countless others that have kept fans occupied in the gap between The Dragon Prince’s first and second seasons.
“We’re aware,” Richmond says. “We read everything about the show, and I would be shocked if there’s a theory that we have not either thought of or heard of online.”
The team behind The Dragon Prince isn’t just reading your theories, they’re responding and interacting with fans wherever they hang out online. The show’s official Twitter account boasts over 45,000 followers and regularly responds to or retweets fan art and comments. They also interact with fans on Tumblr (where the show became an instant hit at launch) and other social media.
Richmond recalls one piece of fan art he recently saw on Twitter featuring Season 1 villain Viren alongside Queen Aanya, a new character in Season 2. The only official information about Aanya so far is a few screenshots from the trailer, but that was enough to inspire at least one fan.
“There was a picture yesterday or two days ago of Viren pointing at her and Aanya kind of being defiant that I absolutely love,” Richmond says. “I thought that was that was great, but I’m excited for people to sort of get into what that relationship is.”
For the past few weeks, the team has been teasing out details from The Dragon Prince Season 2 on social media, and while the response has been incredible, it’s also frustrating for the show’s creators. They want to share more. They want to answer everyone’s questions right now! But they can’t, at least not until the new episodes arrive.
“I personally found it, like, almost torturous to lightly tease things that we’re really excited about sharing,” Ehasz says. “People are asking such great questions, and they have such great theories. You can’t spoil it, but you’re like, ‘I can’t wait to talk about it with you!’ So it’s exciting, but it’s also a little bit torturous.”
The Dragon Prince Season 2 premieres February 15 on Netflix. Maybe after that, Ehasz and Richmond will finally answer my question.
