'Where the F*** Is Mushroom?': House of the Dragon's Gayle Rankin Wants Answers Before the Show Ends

Gayle Rankin has a question, and she wants it printed as a headline. "Where the fuck is Mushroom?" the actress asked in a Hollywood Reporter interview published 18 August 2026 — and personally requested that the publication use those exact words as the story's title.

Rankin plays Alys Rivers on House of the Dragon, the HBO series adapting portions of George R.R. Martin's fictional history Fire and Blood. Her character is known as the "Witch Queen of Harrenhal," a title Rankin says she adores. In season two, Alys played head games with Daemon Targaryen (Matt Smith) inside the ruined fortress of Harrenhal. In season three, she fell in love with Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) — a pairing the show's fans have embraced as "Alysmond," a portmanteau that Vulture spotlighted in a 2 August interview calling Rankin an "Alysmond Truther" (Vulture).

But her pressing question is about a different character entirely. Mushroom is a court jester in Fire and Blood — a fool who served inside the Red Keep and whose fictional tell-all about the royal household shapes much of what readers think they know about the Dance of the Dragons, the Targaryen civil war at the centre of the series. His accounts are deeply sensationalised, particularly regarding Princess Rhaenyra, as Nerdist noted in a 2022 piece on the show's relationship to the book's unreliable narrators (Nerdist).

Mushroom has never appeared on screen. With House of the Dragon heading into its fourth and final season, the window for his arrival is closing fast — a point Rankin is clearly aware of, given the force of her question.

The season three finale, which aired in August, made a significant change to Alys Rivers herself. It revealed that Alys is the Lady of Harrenhal — a lore shift that Collider reported on 16 August (Collider) and that GamesRar suggested could position the character for appearance in the planned Aegon's Conquest film (GamesRadar). The finale also saw Aegon II arrive at Harrenhal with his dragon Sunfyre, interrupting a moment between Alys and Aemond (IGN).

Rankin told The Hollywood Reporter she had read all eight scripts for season three, giving her a full picture of where the story is heading. She did not indicate whether season four's scripts have been shared with the cast yet.

For fans of the books, Mushroom's absence is a notable gap. His testimony — unreliable, bawdy and frequently absurd — is one of three competing narrative voices that Martin uses to build the history of the Dance. The show has leaned on other narrators and omitted Mushroom entirely. Whether that changes in the final season is now, very publicly, on the table.

Rankin asked the question. The show has one season left to answer it.