{"id":21751,"date":"2025-09-17T11:55:08","date_gmt":"2025-09-17T11:55:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/21751\/"},"modified":"2025-09-17T11:55:08","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T11:55:08","slug":"fabien-frankels-task-role-is-the-opposite-of-hotds-criston-cole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/21751\/","title":{"rendered":"Fabien Frankel’s Task Role Is The Opposite Of HOTD’s Criston Cole"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the wait for House of the Dragon<\/a>\u2019s return continues, Fabien Frankel already has a new HBO thriller series that gives him a fantastic follow-up to his Game of Thrones prequel. Following House of the Dragon season 2\u2019s ending<\/a> in October 2024, there\u2019s still no official word on House of the Dragon season 3\u2019s 2026 release date<\/a>. As such, many stars are debuting other long-awaited projects before returning to their roles in Westeros.<\/p>\n

That includes Fabien Frankel, who saw his breakout as Criston Cole in House of the Dragon season 1. While his character was more sympathetic opposite Milly Alcock\u2019s Young Rhaenyra Targaryen, Criston quickly became one of House of the Dragon\u2019s most-hated characters<\/a> throughout season 1\u2019s latter half, with season 2 only making those matters worse. However, Frankel\u2019s new HBO series puts him in a very different role from the divisive Criston.<\/p>\n

Fabien Frankel’s Task Character Is Much More Likable Than Criston Cole<\/p>\n

\"Mark<\/p>\n

Mark Ruffalo looking suspicious in Task
\n Peter Kramer \/\u00a9HBO \/ Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

Marking his first major series since House of the Dragon, Fabien Frankel stars in the main cast of HBO\u2019s Task<\/a>. From the creator of HBO\u2019s hit crime miniseries Mare of Easttown, Task follows an FBI task force investigating a string of robberies against drug rings outside Philadelphia. Frankel portrays Anthony Grasso, a detective from Delaware County recruited for Tom\u2019s (Mark Ruffalo) task force.<\/p>\n

Though he only appears briefly before Task episode 1 ends<\/a>, Frankel gets to expand much more on his character\u2019s personality and backstory in episode 2. While also helping Tom dive deeper into the robberies, we also get to see Anthony form personal connections and friendships with his fellow task force members.<\/p>\n

At one point, Anthony discusses his upbringing and former career as a DJ for high school dances with Lizzie, which brings the two closer together while adding some light and humor to the series amid Task\u2019s notably dark subject matter. With so much darkness surrounding the characters in Task, Frankel\u2019s Anthony provides a serious yet kind and still humorous balance to the investigation.<\/p>\n

Considering Frankel\u2019s Criston Cole generally only exacerbates the anguish, division, misguided vengeance within House of the Dragon\u2019s civil war<\/a> when he\u2019s on screen, it\u2019s a relief to see the actor in an HBO role in which he adds a necessary positive and heartwarming aspect to the story. Though we\u2019re only two episodes in, it\u2019s hard to imagine Anthony straying from being a likable Task character.<\/p>\n

Warning! SPOILERS ahead for George R.R. Martin’s Fire & Blood book, on which House of the Dragon season 3 is based!<\/p>\n

Fabien Frankel’s Criston Will Only Be Hated More In House Of The Dragon Season 3<\/p>\n

With House of the Dragon season 3 fully diving into the battles of the Dance of the Dragons, Criston Cole will play a significant role leading Team Green\u2019s armies. Though he\u2019ll be separated from Alicent while on the battlefront, Criston won\u2019t see much redemption for his treatment of the Targaryens, Velaryons, and Hightowers in season 3.<\/p>\n

George R.R. Martin\u2019s Fire & Blood book reveals that Criston will join Aemond in plans to take Harrenhal from Daemon, and will suffer several notable defeats in the Riverlands. That will happen after the Green armies inevitably receive word about the death of Prince Jacaerys Velaryon<\/a>, which Criston and his men will likely abhorrently celebrate given his horrible treatment of Rhaenyra\u2019s sons their entire lives.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, however, Criston will experience one of the most brutal deaths<\/a> in House of the Dragon himself. After Criston\u2019s host leaves Harrenhal, they face Team Black armies at the Butcher\u2019s Ball, which culminates in Criston being killed and his severed head being paraded around at the following First Battle of Tumbleton. As such, Fabien Frankel sadly won\u2019t stick around through House of the Dragon\u2019s ending.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the wait for House of the Dragon\u2019s return continues, Fabien Frankel already has a new HBO thriller…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[146,85,46,411],"class_list":["post-21751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}