Bloodmoon, Snow, Empire of Ash. In the nearly seven years since Game of Thrones came to what we’ll generously refer to as a polarizing end, a number of successor shows set within the A Song of Ice and Fire universe have either been announced or rumored to exist, only to later be canceled or shelved.
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With the exception of House of the Dragon, a prequel series chronicling the war of succession that broke out between the ruling Targaryens 170 years before the events of Thrones, none of the titles have made it to air, until now. On Jan. 18, the first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a spinoff series co-created by showrunner Ira Parker (House of the Dragon, Better Things) and author George R. R. Martin that centers on the adventures of hedge knight Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his bald young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), will premiere on HBO.
Based on Martin’s beloved Tales of Dunk and Egg prequel novellas, the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms follows Dunk over six episodes. When his mentor, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), the knight Dunk grew up squiring for, dies of a chill on the road to a jousting tournament—before he has a chance to officially knight his humble apprentice—Dunk sees a chance to improve his fortunes. He’ll travel to Ashford Meadow, a rural gathering place located in the region of Westeros known as the Reach, and pass himself off as a true knight so he is able to compete in the tourney. Along the way, he encounters the wily and sharp-witted Egg and takes him on as his squire, leading to an unlikely friendship between the pair.
Only, Dunk is unaware that 10-year-old Egg is actually Prince Aegon V Targaryen, the fifth child and fourth son of Prince Maekar Targaryen and youngest grandson of King Daeron II Targaryen. When we meet Egg, he’s disguised as a commoner. However, he eventually goes on to unexpectedly inherit the Iron Throne, becoming known as “Aegon the Unlikely.”
The series is intended to be a more light-hearted affair than its predecessors and will focus mainly on the lives of the “smallfolk” of Westeros rather than the ruling elite. “This doesn’t have any dragons or big battles,” Martin told the Hollywood Reporter. “It has a field and a lot of tents and some horses.”
“At the end of the day, we are Game of Thrones without all the stuff,” Parker added. “We have one of the ingredients— two unusual characters like Arya and the Hound, or Brienne and Podrick—who are paired together and having conversations. I hope that’s what [made Thrones work]. It’s a big part of what it was for me.”
As for where A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms fits into the Song of Ice and Fire universe, the show takes place around 80 years after the events of House of the Dragon and 90 years before those of Thrones, a relatively peaceful time period when the Targaryens still ruled but dragons were long gone.
Season 1 faithfully follows the story laid out in the first installment of Martin’s novella series, The Hedge Knight, while Season 2, which has already been greenlit, will be adapted from the second, The Sworn Sword. “The big issue is that I have only written three novellas, and I have a lot more stories about Dunk and Egg in my f-cking head,” Martin told the Reporter of where the show is headed. “I’ve got to get them down on paper.”
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