Along with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, we’re getting more House of the Dragon this year. HBO hasn’t shown much of the latter show’s upcoming third season so far, but it’s been talked about lately, namely because author George R.R. Martin’s been vocally unhappy with showrunner Ryan Condal’s many changes from his books.
HBO head Casey Bloys was asked about this rift by Deadline, where he praised both parties: he’d have liked Martin’s thoughts to “stay behind closed doors,” but otherwise considers the author “a great partner to have.” As for Condal, Bloys noted that Martin had introduced him as the right person to lead the show, and he has since been “an excellent showrunner and really great collaborator. We embrace his vision and his creative choices, or we wouldn’t have done it.” He even noted the first two Dragon seasons are well-regarded on Rotten Tomatoes.
“Some of this comes with the territory,” Bloys continued. “The idea that [George] is going to agree with every creator or showrunner that is either developing or producing—two artists are not always going to agree.”
Martin has since moved on to Kingdoms and wasn’t as involved with the third season of Dragon as he normally would’ve been, and Bloys didn’t touch on whether he’d get back involved for season four. As far as that season goes, Bloys reiterated the fourth would be the last, with Condal currently working with the writers to figure out how many episodes will make up that season. However many it gets, expect that season to function as a “natural end to this particular history of that House of the Targaryens.”
Ever since Game of Thrones came to its controversial end, HBO has had grandiose plans, in scope and scale, for what it wants to get out of telling more stories in Westeros and beyond. But for all that epic dreaming, it turns out that the quiet success of one of its intentionally smaller shows could turn all that on its head.
That show is, of course, the ongoing Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which, despite its oversized hero in the form of Ser Duncan the Tall, has charmed audiences with its lighter, more intimate take on the world of Game of Thrones—a story that is about ordinary people getting by underneath and away from the grand politicking of the realm, rather than huge wars and giant, mythical monsters. It’s not just audiences that are charmed, though. Apparently HBO head Casey Bloys is, too.
“If you think about the novellas, it’s a two-hander. It’s two unlikely friends and heroes wandering Westeros. From its inception, from the starting point, it is not warring families, it is not dragons, it is not giant battles. So the creative made sense first, and then the production follows,” Bloys recently told Deadline of the show’s source material, making the case for a project that is smaller in scope.
But according to Bloys, Knights‘ success doesn’t mean that suddenly every Game of Thrones spinoff to come will be a miniseries that eschews major events in Westeros’ past or future—more that the world of the seven kingdoms and the lands beyond are large enough to be able to host series ideas of varying sizes, so that shows like Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon are able to coexist. Bloys also made note that the smaller-scale ideas could also allow for shows to have tighter production turnarounds, suggesting a series like Knight could be a yearly show, rather than have sizeable gaps between seasons (Knight‘s second season will air next year, sandwiched between 2026 and 2028 releases for House of the Dragon‘s third and fourth seasons).
“I’m not looking to change the way that we make television at all. Our business has always been a portfolio business, which means you can have shows like The Last of Us or House of the Dragon, and you can also have smaller-scale shows like Somebody Somewhere or The Chair Company, adding things that can come back on an annual basis, like The Pitt,” Bloys continued, “or adding things where the creative lends itself, in Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, I don’t want to say an easier production, but something that allows you, on a smaller scale, to produce and come back on an annual basis.”
With new Game of Thrones material planned at least through 2028, it’ll be interesting to see how that lesson is applied for the myriad other spinoff projects still in the works for the franchise. Although Bloys didn’t comment on further plans, Deadline did note that there are several projects being planned at the moment, including the recently resurrectedThrones sequel focusing on Jon Snow and Arya Stark, the animated project Nine Voyages based on the life of House of the Dragon‘s Corlys Velaryon, the Sea Snake (with animation legend Genndy Tartakovsky attached), the Nymeria-focused mythological prequel 10,000 Ships, and a series based around Aegon Targaryen’s conquest of Westeros.
Time will tell which of those could get the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms treatment—or make it to the screen at all. But at least the future of Game of Thrones on the small screen is looking a bit brighter thanks to Dunk and Egg… much to the pleasure of their creator, we imagine.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdomskicked off its run with a makeshift funeral: Dunk (Peter Claffey) buries Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), his longtime master, on a muddy hillside. It’s a turning point for the former squire, who decides to take Ser Arlan’s sword and head to the nearby tournament at Ashford to try his luck. After all, he’s a real knight now. Or… is he?
It’s unclear if Ser Arlan actually got around to knighting his protégé before he passed. But Dunk’s nervousness when he’s teased by the steward at Ashford—who jokingly (but convincingly) warns him of the hideous torture that awaits any man who pretends to be a knight—suggests maybe the ceremony didn’t quite come to pass.
Later in episode one, “The Hedge Knight,” Dunk blurts out that the sword he carries is rightfully his, a statement so odd even self-involved Ser Steffon Fossoway takes note of it.
But, in the grand scheme of things, does it really matter if Ser Arlan knighted Dunk—or are the life lessons and innate heroism that “Ser Duncan the Tall” carries within him more important? A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner, Ira Parker, makes a solid point for the latter.
Speaking on the official Game of Thrones podcast (via Winter Is Coming), Parker said it’s more important to consider what makes a good knight, rather than whether or not an official ceremony happened.
“It’s not like it’s an easy thing to do. It’s not like anyone can just stand up and say, ‘I am a knight; here we go.’ You need things. You need horses, you need armor, you need to be able to fight … These guys are professional fighters,” Parker pointed out.
He continued. “I think that’s ultimately, hopefully, what it comes down to, whether or not you have the name and the arms and the armor… you don’t even have to be a good person; you don’t even have to be a moral person. But if you try and help out in the immediate vicinity, you don’t have to go off and change the entire course of history in the realm. You just have to help the guy next to you that’s struggling at the moment. And I think Dunk… as we will see, sort of takes that as his guiding light, and you know, maybe gets him in a little bit of trouble.”
You can check out the full interview here; it starts around 24 minutes in:
Follow that trouble when new episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms arrive Sundays on HBO and HBO Max.
The George R.R. Martin profile in yesterday’s Hollywood Reporter is full of fun tidbits about the author, including his excitement over A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, his thoughts on whether or not that Jon Snow Game of Thrones sequel series will ever happen—and a tiny drop of tea about his feud withHouse of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal. But anytime Martin sits down for questions, the inevitable subject will always arise: what’s the latest on The Winds of Winter?
First things first. Martin is still smarting over that fan who asked him at last year’s WorldCon if he’d allow another author to finish the long-awaited next A Song of Ice and Fire book, given Martin’s advancing age (he’s 77). It was insulting back in August, and it still is now: “I really didn’t need that shit. Nobody needs that shit.”
However, it’s clear that Martin shares his fans’ awareness of the ruthless passage of time. He told THR he has 1,100 pages—yes, that’s the same number he cited back in 2022 and 2023, though it sounds like the content of those pages has shifted somewhat.
“I will open the last chapter I was working on and I’ll say, ‘Oh fuck, this is not very good.’ And I’ll go in and I’ll rewrite it. Or I’ll decide, ‘This Tyrion chapter is not coming along, let me write a Jon Snow chapter.’ If I’m not interrupted though, what happens—at least in the past—is sooner or later, I do get into it,” he told THR.
Even without interruptions, it’s slow going. During the pandemic, Martin retreated to an isolated cabin for some focused writing time; though he told THR that resulted in lots of new material, it also opened the door to second-guessing. “I wrote a Tyrion chapter I just loved. Then I looked at it and said: ‘I can’t do this, it will change the whole book. I’ll make this into a series of dreams. No! That doesn’t work either …’”
But he is still very determined. Giving up on The Winds of Winter is not an option. “It would feel like a total failure to me. I want to finish,” he said.
However, that WorldCon fan’s question also re-entered the interview here. Martin isn’t going to engage another writer to finish the book. That will not happen.
But what if Martin does die—or become incapacitated in some way—before he completes the story? Well, then, “My work won’t be finished,” he said, and offered Charles Dickens’ unfinished last novel as a point of comparison: “It’ll be like The Mystery of Edwin Drood.”
Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that! And while you wait (and wait) for the next Winds of Winter update, check out A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms—premiering January 18 on HBO and HBO Max.
The success of Game of Thrones—divisive last season notwithstanding—naturally inspired HBO to go back for more. House of the Dragon arrived in 2022, a prequel about warring royals patterned so closely after Thrones that it uses the same theme song. But A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which premieres January 18, is cut from a different cloth. A rougher, stinkier cloth. It’s an approach that perfectly suits the source material, George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas—and it makes for a wonderfully entertaining TV show that explores Westeros from an entirely new point of view.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms—co-created by Ira Parker and Martin, and showrun by Parker—takes place between the events of House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones, which are themselves separated by 200-odd years. The new show, therefore, takes place generations after the Dance of the Dragons but generations before the Mother of Dragons. The Targaryens are still very much in power at this point, something that’s of zero concern to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ protagonist… until it suddenly becomes his biggest problem.
When we first meet Dunk (Peter Claffey), he’s burying his master, the very recently deceased Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb). A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place far away from the castles we’ve seen in the previous Westeros shows. Instead, it shows us how people not born with fancy titles get by on the day-to-day—including hedge knights and their squires. It is a life of rain, mud, and sleeping under trees; dealing with buzzing flies and unpalatable food; and not owning much more than your horse, your sword, and the clothes on your back.
Being a knight gives a man a certain status, but there are limits to that. As Dunk—“Ser Duncan the Tall” is the plainly descriptive name he chooses for himself—is made to understand again and again, a dirt-poor hedge knight is the lowest rung of the ladder. That’s brought into clear focus when he ambles to Ashford Meadows, intent on entering a tournament where the other competitors include highborn lords and princes. He’s got close to no money, and this is a place where loyalty tends to be intertwined with whoever’s paying the highest price.
As A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms explores over its six episodes (all of which io9 was able to view for review), being a knight—sworn by oath to “protect the innocent”—and being an honorable man are not always the same thing. In fact, as the unintentionally blundering Ser Dunk discovers, there’s often a deep divide between the two. Even worse, the people with the most power can sometimes be the most despicable of them all, a timeless lesson that Dunk learns in the hardest way possible.
Deciding to check out the tourney at Ashford Meadows is literally Dunk’s first move after Ser Arlen’s passing. And he’s not on his own for long; though he resists the idea, he’s worn down by a bald-headed little oddball named Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) who really, really wants to be his squire. No spoilers here, but even if you haven’t read Martin’s novellas, close viewing of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will reveal Egg’s secret before the narrative comes right out with it.
And that narrative is a compressed one, especially compared to the sprawling likes of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Though there are flashbacks to add important details—since Martin’s stories rely heavily on Dunk’s internal dialogue, this frees the show from needing any voice-over—A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms basically takes place over a couple of days in a single location.
But the stakes are still sky-high. They’re life or death both in the jousting ring, where men compete knowing the considerable risks, and also in the rowdy camp that springs up around the tourney. There, Duncan sees firsthand what an angry, impulsive, bratty Targaryen prince is capable of—bolstered by the confidence that comes with being above the law simply because of who his family is.
House of the Dragon fans are well familiar with that signature Targaryen trait, but you don’t need to have seen that show or even Game of Thrones to enjoy A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Previous Westeros know-how is a bonus, since you’ll recognize certain names and have a working familiarity with the kingdom and its tumultuous history. But with Dunk—an unconventional, immediately likable protagonist—as its entry point, the perspective here is much more immediate and intimate.
That extends to the supporting characters, who enter the story naturally as part of the bustle of the tournament and make an immediate impression, thanks to the show’s consistent blend of clever writing and wonderful performances. Claffey and Ansell are a fantastic leading pair, but the character actors who fill the rest of the cast are also memorable, whether they’re playing sleazy villains, sleazy guys just trying to get ahead, or sleazy good guys. That latter group includes Daniel Ings as the raucous, terrifying yet endearing Ser Lyonel Baratheon, as well as Webb’s craggy old Ser Arlen; the more we learn about Dunk’s time with him, the more it becomes a surprisingly touching backbone to present-day events.
Touching and full of deep ruminations on personal integrity? Yes. Gruesome violence? Indeed, lots of it. But also, bawdy humor and fart jokes? You better believe it. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is confident enough to embrace all of the above. It’s as self-contained as any Martin-adapted Westeros work could ever be, with an almost anthology format set down by the Dunk and Egg novellas. (This first season draws entirely from his first story, “The Hedge Knight.”) And while it takes place in a world Martin fans already know and love, it’s got its own flavor.
One example that illustrates this quite well: while its most recurring musical cue is a whistling motif that underlines the story’s Western feel, it also brings in that famous Game of Thrones theme in two important places.
One is a stunningly heroic, goosebumps-raising moment. The other is a cheeky-as-hell invocation—followed by the show’s first display of ridiculously crude humor, a tactic used sparingly but effectively throughout the series. This show takes its characters and situations seriously, but it doesn’t take itself too seriously, and that makes all the difference.
It’d be easy to complain that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is too short, because we’d love to spend more time hanging out with Dunk and Egg. But six episodes is actually pretty perfect—much like the show itself ends up being. Thank the Seven there’s already a season two on the way.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres January 18 on HBO and HBO Max, with a weekly rollout of new episodes.
He’s Ser Duncan the Tall—but if, like Dexter Sol Ansell’s pint-sized Egg in this new featurette for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, you’ve never heard of him, you soon will. If this glimpse at Peter Claffey’s endearing performance is any indication, he’ll also soon shoot to the top of your list of favorite Game of Thrones-adjacent characters to ever stomp around Westeros.
We’ve seen Dunk in action in trailers so far, but this is our best look yet at the hero of George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas—at least until the show hits HBO in a couple of weeks.
Claffey recalls nervously barfing at his first rehearsal and feeling embarrassed about it—only to be told “That’s great, that’s just like Dunk!” by showrunner Ira Parker. Claffey describes Dunk as a “typical underdog” at the start of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, learning to make his way through Westeros without his mentor, the recently deceased Ser Arlen of Pennytree.
His first stop is a nearby tournament, where he’s soon snarkily classified as a hedge knight—”like a knight, only sadder“—and as Claffey explains, Dunk’s journey will involve squaring that awkward naivete with the feeling that maybe he could be a “glorious knight” if he wanted to.
Claffey also briefly touches on the show’s stunts and unexpected sense of humor—and calls working on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms “the greatest experience of my entire life.” The show premieres January 18 on HBO, and a season two is already on the way.
For the past few years, HBO has kept Game of Thronesgoing by looking back further in its history. While that’s not changing for the rest of the 2020s, creator George R.R. Martin revealed the TV franchise knows it has to move forward, and indeed plans to do just that.
At a recent event in Iceland attended by Los Siete Reinos, the author revealed some of the “five or six” other spinoff projects in the works he’s involved in. Of those, “some” are sequels that’ll pick up where the original series left off back in 2019. HBO certainly seemed poised to continue the stories of Arya and Jon specifically, and he even had a spinoff announced. Those plans eventually fell through, while Martin teased last year that something could be percolating with Arya’s actor, Maisie Williams.
Beyond the just-renewed House of the Dragon and A Knight of Seven Kingdoms, Martin has previously talked up spinoffs for Aegon the Conqueror, the animated Nine Voyagesfocused on Corlys Velaryon, and a prequel focused on Queen Nymeria. (There might even be a movie too, remember?) A lot of Thrones, the apparent move on HBO’s end being to fill fans with enough prequels to soften them up for whatever’s next in Westeros. Has everyone moved on from hating the ending to where that’s possible? We’ll find out if such a follow-up ever actually gets announced, much less made.
2025 has been a bit of a holding pattern for Game of Thrones fans (even beyond whatever is perpetually happening, or not happening, with Winds of Winter). With no House of the Dragon and a long wait until early 2026 for the next Game of Thrones spinoff, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, ravens from Westeros have been few and far between. But with HBO’s new plans, it’s hoping that the next three years will be much more plentiful.
This morning HBO confirmed that it had renewed both Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon for new seasons, setting out an alternative release schedule that will see the shows both broadcast in 2026, before alternating releases in 2027 and 2028.
“We are thrilled to be able to deliver new seasons of these two series for the next three years, for the legion of fans of the Game of Thrones universe,” HBO head of Drama Series and Films Francesca Orsi said in a statement provided via press release. “Together, House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms reveal just how expansive and richly imagined George R. R. Martin’s universe continues to be. In January, I think audiences will be delighted by the inspiring underdog tale of Dunk and Egg that George and Ira Parker have captured so beautifully. And this summer, House of the Dragon is set to ignite once again with some of its most epic battles yet.”
To mark the announcement, HBO also released new images from both shows—check them out below.
Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set to premiere January 18 next year, with the third season of House of the Dragon slated for a summer 2026 release window. After that, Knight‘s sophomore season will broadcast in 2027, and House‘s fourth season in 2028.
Although HBO did not confirm it in its renewal announcement today, showrunner Ryan Condal previously stated shortly after the conclusion of House of the Dragon‘s second season that the plan for the Targaryen-focused spinoff would remain to tell the story of the Dance of the Dragons across four seasons, bringing the series to an end in 2028.
What HBO has planned for the future of Game of Thrones beyond 2028 remains to be seen. If House does indeed finish that year, it might be time for another Westerosi spinoff to emerge—although it’s not been for a lack of ideas that another series hasn’t made it to production in the years since Game of Thrones itself came to a controversial end.
And if there isn’t? Well… at least we’ll have Windsat some point.
Score one for human beings in the ongoing battle between authors and generative AI models.
A federal judge recently used Game of Thrones as an example while allowing class-action lawsuits against OpenAI to move ahead. According to Business Insider, a court ruling on Monday by U.S. District Judge Sidney Stein pointed to ChatGPT-generated text for an installment inA Song of Ice and Fireas grounds for violating George R.R. Martin’s copyright over his book series.
“A reasonable jury could find that the allegedly infringing outputs are substantially similar to plaintiffs’ works,” the Manhattan federal court ruling explained, as shared by the publication.
Along with Martin, other notable authors, including Michael Chabon, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jia Tolentino, and Sarah Silverman, are part of cases against OpenAI and Microsoft asserting that their copyrights are being violated by allowing their works to be utilized without permission to train the large language models—not to mention allowing AI to create content that could be passed off as authors’ legally protected works.
As part of the lawsuit, a ChatGPT prompt created by Martin’s lawyers resulted in the AI’s offer to craft “an alternative sequel to A Clash of Kings [called] A Dance with Shadows,” tweaking Martin’s title, A Storm of Swords. As Business Insider notes, the chatbot went on to suggest plots revolving around “the discovery of a novel kind of ‘ancient dragon-related magic’ and new claims to the Iron Throne from ‘a distant relative of the Targaryens’ named Lady Elara, as well as ‘a rogue sect of Children of the Forest.’”
The results were reminiscent enough of Martin’s work to allow the suits to move forward on copyright infringement grounds, though whether or not Microsoft and OpenAI are protected by “fair use” is still to be decided.
Sure, AI can write faster than Martin but it is not Martin and will never replace Martin. We’d rather wait a few (more) years for his next book, thank you very much.
As fans eagerly await the arrival of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, bringing another corner of George R.R. Martin’s Westeros to HBO, the showrunner of the Game of Thrones spinoff is teasing the return of a familiar character. Sort of. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place about a century before Game of Thrones, so it would have to be someone we met on the latter show very, very late in their life. Someone like, say… Walder Frey.
The Lord of the Crossing—very well known to fans of both Martin’s books and the HBO series for hosting the infamous Red Wedding—is of extremely advanced age when we meet his incarnation played by David Bradley. But time hasn’t softened his devious, unforgiving nature, as Robb Stark and company learn the hard way. And, as Martin’s Dunk character learns in The Mystery Knight, the third novella in the series that inspired A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Walder was a pill even as a tot.
In the story, Dunk and Egg find themselves at a wedding feast involving a daughter of House Frey—a wedding hastened into being because the bride’s younger brother caught her fooling around with a servant. The younger brother is a toddler that Dunk finds so annoying he has a thought to chuck him down a well—imagine the history he could’ve rewritten!
And A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker teased he wouldn’t be against giving wee Walder a cameo, according to Polygon.
“My favorite [cameo idea] is, and look, it’s not until the third book, but there’s a baby Walder Frey,” Parker told the outlet. “I have this, hopefully, really funny idea that people are probably gonna kill me for. But this idea that something’s happening, like there’s a runaway horse cart, and this baby’s about to be killed, and Dunk intervenes and saves baby Walder Frey.”
If A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms goes there, Parker continued, it wouldn’t involve a big wink at the audience to make sure everyone caught the reference. “We don’t ever make a thing of it,” he said. “It just happens, and we’re on with the story. That’s sort of the closest we get to [a direct crossover with characters] in the three novels that have been written.”
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which adapts The Hedge Knight, the first Dunk and Egg tale, hits HBO January 18.
Game of Thrones is not without funny characters and meme-able moments, but you might be surprised with just how dang funny and delightful A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Without giving too much away, the show, a spin-off set 100 years before the OG series based on a series of George R. R. Martin novellas, delivers punchlines and editing choices that might remind you more of Family Guy than Game of Thrones. At round table interviews as part of New York Comic-Con 2025, A Knight Of the Seven Kingdoms‘ showrunner Ira Parker and star Peter Claffey, who plays Ser Duncan the Tall a.k.a. “Dunk,” talked about how funny the show is and how they maintained that tone in a Westerosi environment.
For Claffey, a former professional Rugby player and alum of both Bad Sisters and Vikings: Valhalla, a love of/desire to make comedy is part of what brought him to performing. “When I finished playing rugby and kind of went into this and tried to go full hog into this,” he said, “I started by writing a lot of sketch comedy stuff, and I really enjoyed it.” This show leans into comedic moments and opt for comedic takes on moments that Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon wouldn’t necessarily choose. There aren’t just comic relief characters, like Tyrion Lannister or The Hound. Everyone on this show is funny, from Claffey himself to Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg and Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon.
“I think because of writing the sketch comedy, filming different skits and stuff like that I was honing the craft slightly in order to play those comedic beats, and I was quite glad that I had that in the artillery to then take a scene and have a discussion with Ira or have a discussion with [directors Owen Harris and Sarah Adina Smith] and say how can we make this that sort of theme that we wanted.”
That does not mean that the show isn’t dark at times.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is as violent, action-packed, and grotesque as you’d expect regardless. It’s still Westeros, after all. There are still ambitious characters, cruel characters, and a morbid aversion to telling morally black and white stories. However, Claffey continued, “you can find so much comedy from terrible situations.” It’s one of his favorite kinds of comedy. “I’m an enormous fan of Ari Aster and Robert Eggers,” he said, “and Ari Aster especially has developed this genre of nightmare comedy where you find yourself horrified but also laughing your head off. Movies like [Kristoffer Borgli’s] Dream Scenario, and I really loved [Aster’s] Beau is Afraid. I do think when the stakes are so high in this series that we’ve shot, there are moments to take a breath away. When we watched it back it was nice to see those things. Hopefully everybody feels like we pulled it off.”
Parker, who is also a writer on House of the Dragon, reiterated that it’s important the show still look and feel like Game of Thrones. “People like sitting in Westeros” and pretending the fantasy world is be real, he said, so any comedy has to have a subtle touch so as not to disrupt the “gritty, grimy, Earth-” world Martin created. “Certainly in our shooting of the show we wanted to be as faithful as as classic and we didn’t want to be too stylized in the camera movements and the way that it was shot,” said Parker. “We wanted people to feel like this was a world that they recognized but then also start giving subtle nods to, you know, we’re gonna try and do a little something different with our storytelling.”
The biggest difference between this show and the shows in this universe we’ve seen before is that it has a singular perspective. This is entirely Dunk’s story. If he’s not in the scene, we don’t see the scene. So, as Parker explained, the comedy was a way to sneak in backstory and not bore the audience. (Remember how Game of Thrones used to do that with sex scenes so much that people started calling it sexposition? Different times…)
“So obviously, very early on, letting people know with the slaps and the cutaways,” Parker continued, referencing a gag in the show’s pilot as Dunk thinks back to the abuse he endured as a squire. “Dunk is standing at that graveside thinking about the good and the bad. He has such a conflicted relationship with Ser Arlan, obviously in the books and in this show, and it’s important to show both sides of this so it wasn’t just somebody eulogizing and thinking about how great they were. We see the knight and squire relationship can be quite brutal and quite complicated at times.”
Taking a moment like that and playing it for laughs is “just a very handy tool to get a bit of background on Dunk […] very quickly so that you can launch into the story with us,” Claffey explained. “Obviously we don’t have the benefit of Dunk’s inner monologue as we do in the books and we can’t ever cut away from [his point-of-view] either. Everyone has to be in with this one human being from the get go. So packing information into there was the fun, was the challenge of this series.”
Leah Marilla Thomas (she/her) is a contributor at The Mary Sue. She has been working in digital entertainment journalism since 2013, covering primarily television as well as film and live theatre. She’s been on the Marvel beat professionally since Daredevil was a Netflix series. (You might recognize her voice from the Newcomers: Marvel podcast). Outside of journalism, she is 50% Southerner, 50% New Englander, and 100% fangirl over everything from Lord of the Rings to stage lighting and comics about teenagers. She lives in New York City and can often be found in a park. She used to test toys for Hasbro. True story!
Game of Thrones fans rejoice because A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms just blessed us with a new trailer at New York Comic-Con. During a panel for The Hedge Knight hosted by Phase Hero’s Brandon Davis, attendees crowded in to see what the newest additions to the mammoth series would be. Interestingly enough, the route to the future lies directly in the past.
As HBO wants fans to know up front, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms begins before the original series that the entire Internet fell in love with. To be exact, the new show happens about 70 years after House of the Dragon, but 100 years before Game of Thrones! So, it’s a little bit of a mind-bender before you get a true handle of the timeline at play here. Needless to say, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will deliver all that action and intrigue you’ve come to expect from this universe.
It’s a real wonder that these kinds of sprawling stories can now hit the air without worrying about the narrative complexity of the universe being too much for audiences. George R.R. Martin actually talked about that during the panel today. He called the stories “too big, too expensive” to realize on-screen in the past. But, clearly that’s changed!
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms brings Game of Thrones back to our screens
One of the big draws for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is how much the idea of a medieval tournament comes into play. During today’s panel, Martin explained that this aspect was always something he was looking forward to adapting. And, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms presented the perfect opportunity to really zoom in on these contests.
Expect some of that noise during The Hedge Knight as well. It’s shaping up to be a massive year for Game of Thrones fans. With multiple spinoffs seeing the light of day in short order, the land of Westeros is going to be anything but dull in the coming months.
Remember back in 2022 when you settled in to watch House of the Dragon‘s first episode? Here was a fresh start after Game of Thrones‘ disappointing final season. A clean slate, a new cast, a new (earlier) era of Westeros. But… the exact sameRamin Djawadi theme song?
It made sense on some level—it’s an awfully catchy bit of music—but it also felt a little bit repetitive. Good news for people hoping A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will try something different: HBO’s latest journey to Westeros will not only not use that same opening theme, it won’t even have a theme at all.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, showrunner Ira Parker explained why that choice was made. It’s a way right from the start to let viewers know that this series is far more scaled down than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Rather than the massive canvas both of those shows occupy, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms keeps a tight focus on Dunk and Egg, the characters who star in the George R.R. Martin stories it’s adapted from.
“All decisions came down to Dunk, trying to channel the type of person he is into every aspect of this show, even the title sequence,” Parker said. “The title sequences on the original [Game of Thrones] and House of Dragon are big and epic and incredible. Ramin Djawadi’s score is orchestral and large and beautiful. That’s not really Dunk’s MO. He’s plain and he’s simple and he’s to-the-point. He doesn’t have a lot of flash to him.”
Parker also said that unlike those other Westeros-set shows, which revolve around all the drama associated with fighting over who will get to claim the Iron Throne, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms—which is set 50 years after House of the Dragon, making it a later prequel to Game of Thrones—will keep its perspective pointed away from the upper classes. “To find a totally different version of this world that everybody seems to know so well was very, very appealing,” he said.
There aren’t any dragons left by the time A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms rolls around. (Obviously, it takes place some time prior to the emergence of a certain Mother of Dragons.) “The fact that we live in this world, though, where magic once existed is very interesting to me,” Parker said. “This is the ground and the grass that has seen dragons and dragon fire before. So everything is just like how the world is, but a little stranger, a little different.”
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is having a New York Comic Con panel later this week, so presumably we’ll be learning a lot more—like its exact arrival date in 2026, for starters.
We did already know that Game of Thrones spin-offs A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and House of the Dragon season three would arrive in 2026. But now we have more concrete details on when we’ll be heading back to Westeros—and the time between visits could be surprisingly short.
As Deadline reports, HBO and HBO Max head Casey Bloys offered some morsels for George R.R. Martin fans as part of an interview celebrating the outlet’s many Emmy wins. (Hell yeah, The Penguin star Cristin Milioti!)
According to the trade, House of the Dragon‘s return is “possibly in June,” based on Bloys’ estimate that “I think it’ll be just outside of [the 2026 Emmy eligibility window],” Bloys said; the window closes May 31.
But even earlier than that, the trade confirms, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms “will premiere in January.” That lines up with reports from May 2024 that the show, originally touted as dropping in 2025, would arrive in early 2026—though a month wasn’t specified at that time.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has already been confirmed to run six episodes. Just speculating here, but if it kicks off the first Sunday of January, it would run through the second week of February. If House of the Dragon arrives the first Sunday of June, that would be just 17 or so weeks between Game of Thrones-adjacent adventures.
Does that feel like overkill, or the right amount of time to maximize the hype? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Game of Thrones was beloved for much of its run—winning awards, topping “best” lists—before it famously went off the rails in its eighth and final season. Time hasn’t softened the blow one bit, even with the subsequent success of the prequel series House of the Dragon. Fans will likely never forgive the show’s disappointing downturn, and that’s something one Game of Thrones star in particular hasn’t quite come to terms with: Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, who played Jaime Lannister.
Of course, Coster-Waldau and his co-stars weren’t writing the scripts and shouldn’t be taken to task for the odd choices their characters may have made in season eight. But in a new interview with the Independent, though, you can tell Coster-Waldau is weary of the subject, something he’s no doubt been asked about since the show’s 2019 end.
“It was expected,” he said of the backlash. “How are you ever gonna make an end that’s gonna satisfy everyone? That’s a very difficult thing. I absolutely think people are entitled to whatever opinion they have, but it’s a television show. Someone told you a story and you didn’t like the ending. It’s really annoying, but…”
The article also notes that Coster-Waldau was reportedly being paid over $1 million per episode as Game of Thrones ended its run, so perhaps that helped make the criticism easier to take.
Last year, his fellow Lannister, Peter Dinklage, boldly declared that he liked the finale, noting that if the show got people talking, that was all part of the fun—a bit more of an upbeat takeaway. Are you still frustrated by the end of Game of Thrones?
“Game of Thrones” fans came out in droves to bid on hundreds of costumes, props and other items from the series in an auction that raked in over $21 million.From Thursday through Saturday, the Heritage Auctions event in Dallas featured over 900 lots including suits of armor, swords and weapons, jewelry and several other items of significance from the HBO series.The top-dollar item was the very thing the characters in the series vied for throughout its eight-season run: the Iron Throne. After a six-minute bidding war, the throne sold for $1.49 million.The replica was made of plastic and molded from the original screen-used version, then finished off with metallic paint and jewel embellishments. In the series, the throne was forged with dragon breath that melted the swords of a thousand vanquished challengers and became a symbol of the struggle for power throughout the show’s run.Heritage Auctions said in a statement Sunday that the event brought in $21.1 million from more than 4,500 bidders. The auction marked Heritage’s second-best entertainment event, just shy of the record set by a Debbie Reynolds sale it held in 2011.Heritage Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena said in a statement he knew the auction would resonate.”These are extraordinary treasures made by Emmy-winning costume designers and prop makers, who worked tirelessly to adapt George R.R. Martin’s wonderful novels,” Maddalena said. “People wanted a piece of that ‘Game of Thrones’ magic.”Beyond the coveted Iron Throne, over 30 other lots commanded six-figure price tags.Jon Snow’s signature sword, Longclaw, wielded onscreen by Kit Harington, sold for $400,000 and his night’s watch ensemble, featuring a heavy cape, went for $337,500. Both items kicked off prolonged bidding wars.Starting bids ranged from $500 to $20,000, but several items went for thousands of dollars more. Such was the case for several cloaks and dresses worn by Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister. A gray suede ensemble worn by Daenerys sold for $112,500, exactly $100,000 over its starting bid, and the red velvet dress Cersei wears in her final appearance on the show went for $137,500, which was $122,500 over its starting bid.Suits of armor also proved popular, especially when they included sought-after weapons. Jaime Lannister’s black-leather armor ensemble fetched $275,000 and his Kingsguard armor — including his iconic Oathkeeper longsword — went for $212,500. Queensguard armor worn by the character Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane sold for $212,500.In an interview when the auction was announced in September, Jay Roewe, HBO’s senior vice president of global incentives and production planning, said the sale speaks to the series’ staying power five years after its finale.”‘Game of Thrones’ was a zeitgeist moment in our culture. It was a zeitgeist moment in high-end television. It was a zeitgeist moment in terms of HBO,” he said. “It’s impacted the culture.”
“Game of Thrones” fans came out in droves to bid on hundreds of costumes, props and other items from the series in an auction that raked in over $21 million.
From Thursday through Saturday, the Heritage Auctions event in Dallas featured over 900 lots including suits of armor, swords and weapons, jewelry and several other items of significance from the HBO series.
The top-dollar item was the very thing the characters in the series vied for throughout its eight-season run: the Iron Throne. After a six-minute bidding war, the throne sold for $1.49 million.
The replica was made of plastic and molded from the original screen-used version, then finished off with metallic paint and jewel embellishments. In the series, the throne was forged with dragon breath that melted the swords of a thousand vanquished challengers and became a symbol of the struggle for power throughout the show’s run.
Heritage Auctions said in a statement Sunday that the event brought in $21.1 million from more than 4,500 bidders. The auction marked Heritage’s second-best entertainment event, just shy of the record set by a Debbie Reynolds sale it held in 2011.
Heritage Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena said in a statement he knew the auction would resonate.
“These are extraordinary treasures made by Emmy-winning costume designers and prop makers, who worked tirelessly to adapt George R.R. Martin’s wonderful novels,” Maddalena said. “People wanted a piece of that ‘Game of Thrones’ magic.”
Beyond the coveted Iron Throne, over 30 other lots commanded six-figure price tags.
Jon Snow’s signature sword, Longclaw, wielded onscreen by Kit Harington, sold for $400,000 and his night’s watch ensemble, featuring a heavy cape, went for $337,500. Both items kicked off prolonged bidding wars.
Starting bids ranged from $500 to $20,000, but several items went for thousands of dollars more. Such was the case for several cloaks and dresses worn by Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister. A gray suede ensemble worn by Daenerys sold for $112,500, exactly $100,000 over its starting bid, and the red velvet dress Cersei wears in her final appearance on the show went for $137,500, which was $122,500 over its starting bid.
Suits of armor also proved popular, especially when they included sought-after weapons. Jaime Lannister’s black-leather armor ensemble fetched $275,000 and his Kingsguard armor — including his iconic Oathkeeper longsword — went for $212,500. Queensguard armor worn by the character Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane sold for $212,500.
In an interview when the auction was announced in September, Jay Roewe, HBO’s senior vice president of global incentives and production planning, said the sale speaks to the series’ staying power five years after its finale.
“‘Game of Thrones’ was a zeitgeist moment in our culture. It was a zeitgeist moment in high-end television. It was a zeitgeist moment in terms of HBO,” he said. “It’s impacted the culture.”
“Game of Thrones” fans came out in droves to bid on hundreds of costumes, props and other items from the series in an auction that raked in over $21 million.From Thursday through Saturday, the Heritage Auctions event in Dallas featured over 900 lots including suits of armor, swords and weapons, jewelry and several other items of significance from the HBO series.The top-dollar item was the very thing the characters in the series vied for throughout its eight-season run: the Iron Throne. After a six-minute bidding war, the throne sold for $1.49 million.The replica was made of plastic and molded from the original screen-used version, then finished off with metallic paint and jewel embellishments. In the series, the throne was forged with dragon breath that melted the swords of a thousand vanquished challengers and became a symbol of the struggle for power throughout the show’s run.Heritage Auctions said in a statement Sunday that the event brought in $21.1 million from more than 4,500 bidders. The auction marked Heritage’s second-best entertainment event, just shy of the record set by a Debbie Reynolds sale it held in 2011.Heritage Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena said in a statement he knew the auction would resonate.”These are extraordinary treasures made by Emmy-winning costume designers and prop makers, who worked tirelessly to adapt George R.R. Martin’s wonderful novels,” Maddalena said. “People wanted a piece of that ‘Game of Thrones’ magic.”Beyond the coveted Iron Throne, over 30 other lots commanded six-figure price tags.Jon Snow’s signature sword, Longclaw, wielded onscreen by Kit Harington, sold for $400,000 and his night’s watch ensemble, featuring a heavy cape, went for $337,500. Both items kicked off prolonged bidding wars.Starting bids ranged from $500 to $20,000, but several items went for thousands of dollars more. Such was the case for several cloaks and dresses worn by Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister. A gray suede ensemble worn by Daenerys sold for $112,500, exactly $100,000 over its starting bid, and the red velvet dress Cersei wears in her final appearance on the show went for $137,500, which was $122,500 over its starting bid.Suits of armor also proved popular, especially when they included sought-after weapons. Jaime Lannister’s black-leather armor ensemble fetched $275,000 and his Kingsguard armor — including his iconic Oathkeeper longsword — went for $212,500. Queensguard armor worn by the character Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane sold for $212,500.In an interview when the auction was announced in September, Jay Roewe, HBO’s senior vice president of global incentives and production planning, said the sale speaks to the series’ staying power five years after its finale.”‘Game of Thrones’ was a zeitgeist moment in our culture. It was a zeitgeist moment in high-end television. It was a zeitgeist moment in terms of HBO,” he said. “It’s impacted the culture.”
“Game of Thrones” fans came out in droves to bid on hundreds of costumes, props and other items from the series in an auction that raked in over $21 million.
From Thursday through Saturday, the Heritage Auctions event in Dallas featured over 900 lots including suits of armor, swords and weapons, jewelry and several other items of significance from the HBO series.
The top-dollar item was the very thing the characters in the series vied for throughout its eight-season run: the Iron Throne. After a six-minute bidding war, the throne sold for $1.49 million.
The replica was made of plastic and molded from the original screen-used version, then finished off with metallic paint and jewel embellishments. In the series, the throne was forged with dragon breath that melted the swords of a thousand vanquished challengers and became a symbol of the struggle for power throughout the show’s run.
Heritage Auctions said in a statement Sunday that the event brought in $21.1 million from more than 4,500 bidders. The auction marked Heritage’s second-best entertainment event, just shy of the record set by a Debbie Reynolds sale it held in 2011.
Heritage Executive Vice President Joe Maddalena said in a statement he knew the auction would resonate.
“These are extraordinary treasures made by Emmy-winning costume designers and prop makers, who worked tirelessly to adapt George R.R. Martin’s wonderful novels,” Maddalena said. “People wanted a piece of that ‘Game of Thrones’ magic.”
Beyond the coveted Iron Throne, over 30 other lots commanded six-figure price tags.
Jon Snow’s signature sword, Longclaw, wielded onscreen by Kit Harington, sold for $400,000 and his night’s watch ensemble, featuring a heavy cape, went for $337,500. Both items kicked off prolonged bidding wars.
Starting bids ranged from $500 to $20,000, but several items went for thousands of dollars more. Such was the case for several cloaks and dresses worn by Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen and Lena Headey as Cersei Lannister. A gray suede ensemble worn by Daenerys sold for $112,500, exactly $100,000 over its starting bid, and the red velvet dress Cersei wears in her final appearance on the show went for $137,500, which was $122,500 over its starting bid.
Suits of armor also proved popular, especially when they included sought-after weapons. Jaime Lannister’s black-leather armor ensemble fetched $275,000 and his Kingsguard armor — including his iconic Oathkeeper longsword — went for $212,500. Queensguard armor worn by the character Gregor ‘The Mountain’ Clegane sold for $212,500.
In an interview when the auction was announced in September, Jay Roewe, HBO’s senior vice president of global incentives and production planning, said the sale speaks to the series’ staying power five years after its finale.
“‘Game of Thrones’ was a zeitgeist moment in our culture. It was a zeitgeist moment in high-end television. It was a zeitgeist moment in terms of HBO,” he said. “It’s impacted the culture.”
The exterior of the cave of the Three-Eyed Raven is constructed in a quarry near Ballymena, Northern Ireland—an almost perfect bowl-shaped hollow now filled with scenery, tents, and cabins. The cave’s interior and its various tunnels have been constructed at the studio in Banbridge, and it’s there where we’ll spend the majority of our time. The walls have been covered in moss and the floor strewn with real animal bones. On our first day, we’re also joined by the 85-year-old actor Max von Sydow who plays the Three-Eyed Raven—one of the old guard of actors I love to watch so much. Physically, Max seems more frail than even Margaret John had been, and I worry about him sat for hours in the cold. But just like Margaret did, he can snap into character like an old pro.
Since I’ve returned to the series, this is the first scene where Hodor has to interact. Meera will talk with him about the food she’s been dreaming of when they reach home. The mention of home and sausages lights up Hodor’s face.
It’s supposed to be a lovely, lighthearted moment before all hell breaks loose and the undead descend on us, but I just can’t relax. In fact, I feel suffocated by the enormity of everything that’s expected of me. Jesus fucking Christ, Kristian. You need to be on your A game, I tell myself, but I’m agitated, so much so that Jack notices I’m struggling.
“Are you OK?” he asks after a few takes, which I’ve barely managed to get through. “Are you having difficulty?”
“Yes, it’s awful,” the words tumble from me. Hodor’s subtle tics used to come easily to me, but now I’m tying myself in knots trying to express them. I explain to Jack the mad journey I’ve been on for the past year, and the personal journey I’ve been on, too. I’m finding stepping back into inhabiting someone other than myself very hard. Then I stop. Did I just say all of that … to a director I don’t know? I think. Years ago, I would have kept silent, like when my back was breaking in the Great Hall. I stop talking and watch Jack’s eyes carefully. Is he going to understand? Help me work this out? Or dismiss me and move on?
“OK, just take it easy,” he smiles.
“I’ll be fine, but everyone might need to be a bit patient,” I say quickly. Jack gives me a shoulder squeeze.
“Just relax. It will all come flooding back,” he reassures me.
Jack is right, just like John Ruskin had been years ago. And after a while, I do start to remember: Do not overthink Hodor; do not overthink your performance. As the morning wears on, Hodor reappears like an old friend.
[My stunt double] Brian is also worth his weight in gold. As soon as the magical shield keeping us safe in the cave vanishes and the wights and White Walkers come for Bran, we need to hotfoot it out. This means take after take of me pulling Isaac on the sled, which is attached on runners to the tunnel floor. Thankfully, Brian will take the reins on many of these shots—the shots where my face is not in view. My back hasn’t yet completely recovered, and this also gives me the chance to concentrate on what’s ahead. Besides, Isaac has gotten even heavier in the intervening years.
Hosts: Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, and Jomi Adeniran Producers: Aleya Zenieris, Jonathan Kermah, and Steve Ahlman Additional Production Support: Arjuna Ramgopal
The stars of Game Thrones had people really chill with this trend.
While HBO’s Game of Thrones is currently over, the spin offs continue. The next Game of Thrones (GoT) spin-off isn’t until 2025. George RR Martin has confirmed A Knight of Seven Kingdoms will continue the story. Aside from the merch and memes, it has also spun on “experiences”. But one of the most chill things is did Game of Thrones stars help this weed trend to chill out? Playing characters on GoTcould be tense, but it helped bond the cast. Sophie Turner and Maisie Williams become good friends and to relax from long days of filming Sansa and Arya Stark, they would get stoned and take a bath.
Now they are two ways to take a weed bath. One, like Sophie and Maisie, you can consume some gummies, use a vape or go old school and smoke or you can take one and use a bath bomb. The goal is to relax and chill, so fold in some music and just let the warm water wash over you. Social media extolls the benefits of a relaxing bath, especially if marijuana is blended in.
A THC bath bomb is the same thing as a normal bath bomb, but with THC. They contain essential oils, extracts, and of course, cannabinoids, which dissolve when they are dropped into your bathwater. They use the same science as a cannabis topical. Your endocannabinoid system consists of an intricate network of receptors that are activated both by our body’s own endocannabinoids and by the marijuana plant’s phytocannabinoids.
When you submerge your body into water enhanced by a THC bath bomb, you’re coating the receptors in your skin with the cannabinoids inside the bath bomb. While you mentally might get high, it can create a full body effect similar to if you rubbed THC oil all over yourself. This “body high,” as it is sometimes called, can be different for everyone, but most people find it to be relaxing.
Sophie Turner shared “We’re kind of like loners on Game of Thrones, just because the past few seasons Maisie and I have sleepovers every night when we’re shooting. Or every night whenever both of us are in town. We just used to sit there and eat and watch stupid videos and smoke weed. I don’t know if my publicist will kill me for saying this. We’d get high and then we’d sit in the bath together and we’d rub makeup brushes on our faces. It’s fun.”
