“I feel so content and happy with what my experience was, that I think watching the new one would just feel so odd,” the actress tells PEOPLE

Emilia Clarke continues to rule out watching House of the Dragon.

“I still can’t,” the actress, 37, tells PEOPLE exclusively of the Game of Thrones prequel series, which returns for its second season on Sunday, June 16. “I just don’t know what it is.”

“I feel so content and happy with what my experience was, that I think watching the new one would just feel so odd, I think,” she continues.

Still, Clarke — who recently took on a new role as Pegasus Distillerie’s global brand ambassador — says she has nothing but love for the spinoff and is so thrilled for all of its success.

“I really do fully support the entire thing and everyone who’s made it, and it’s beautiful how successful it’s been,” she says. “It’s absolutely amazing.”

House of the Dragon premiered in August 2022. It is a prequel series to Game of Thrones, which ran from 2011 to 2019.

On Game of Thrones, Clarke starred as Daenerys Targaryen. House of the Dragon follows the events leading up to the decline of House Targaryen and begins around a century after the Seven Kingdoms are united by the Targaryen conquest, nearly 200 years before the events of Game of Thrones and 172 years before the birth of Clarke’s character.

Paddy Considine, Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, Emma D’Arcy and Rhys Ifans are some of the stars attached to the series.

House of the Dragon’s first season was nominated for outstanding drama series at the 2024 Emmy Awards. It also received nominations at the Golden Globe Awards, the Critics’ Choice Television Awards and the SAG Awards. The first season consisted of 10 episodes, while season 2 will be made up of eight.

According to Clarke, her feelings about Game of Thrones have changed over the years, and she now has a new appreciation for the series.

“The more distance I have from Game of Thrones, the more I can quantify it,” she tells PEOPLE.

“… When I started, you don’t know what you’re doing, you don’t know what you’re surrounded by and you don’t know what you’re taking part in,” continues to Emmy-nominated star.

“Now, as more and more time goes between it and me doing it, the more I’m like, that was incredibly special and that was incredibly rare,” Clarke adds.

House of the Dragon returns to HBO on Sunday, June 16, at 9 p.m. EST.