Around mid-April 2023, HBO announced that it had officially ordered another Game of Thrones prequel—the success of the first season of House of the Dragon having assured the powers that be that the horrid garbage fire that was the two final seasons of GoT miraculously did not kill the franchise. The latest prequel series is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.
Just like George R.R. Martin, the creator of A Song of Ice and Fire, HBO realized that focusing on the three centuries of Targaryen rule that happened before all the events we saw in Game of Thrones is both very fun and really entertaining. That’s what happens when you take a family riddled with incestuous tendencies and god complexes and put them on the throne of a fantasy realm.
So, even though news about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is still sparse, let’s recap what we know so far—both from HBO’s announcements and from what the ASOIAF canon can tell us.
What is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms about?
The new prequel is titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. It will be set almost a century before Game of Thrones, and about 80 years after House of the Dragon (and the devastating Dance of the Dragons the show is readying to unleash upon our television screens).
The two main characters, as the caption of HBO’s announcement post says, are “Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg.” The two have been mentioned a couple of times in the main A Song of Ice and Fire books and have also gotten their own little trilogy of novellas, the Tales of Dunk and Egg—The Hedge Knight, published in 1998; The Sworn Sword, released in 2003; and The Mystery Knight, published in 2010. The three novellas were also collected in a single illustrated edition in 2015, released under the title A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
This new show’s official synopsis, as reported by a 2024 The Hollywood Reporter article, goes as follows: “A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naive but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes and dangerous exploits all away these improbable and incomparable friends”.
We can guess the plot will follow the story of the first novella and then continue with the other two—maybe while also taking a peek at what’s happening in the wider world beyond Dunk and Egg’s adventures.
Of course, the fact that the novellas exist obviously means that readers can easily pinpoint the major plot points of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and which characters will appear around the two leads. If you want to go into the show completely spoiler-free, skip the next three paragraphs—otherwise, here’s what the existing ASOIAF canon can tell us.
Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg are pretty well-known figures in the history of Westeros: a hedge knight turned Lord Commander of the Kingsguard, and his squire, who is secretly a Targaryen prince—one who everyone assumes will never inherit the crown (being the fourth son of a fourth son), which is why they allow him to follow a knight of little importance around the realm. We, of course, know that Egg will grow up to become King Aegon V the Unlikely—Daenerys Targaryen’s great-grandfather.
The plot of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms depends on how many seasons they intend to develop. The most obvious of answers seems to be three, maybe even with a reduced number of episodes compared to the usual 10, with each tackling one of the three novellas. We’re bound to follow the whole series of complicated events at the tourney at Ashford Meadow at the start, with Dunk and Egg actually meeting for the first time and the Trial of the Seven.
With a focus on Dunk and Egg, this new prequel is definitely going to be less intrigue-filled and more like that chunk of Game of Thrones season 3 where Arya and the Hound were trotting around the realm and exploring the typical “grumpy man and his feisty surrogate daughter” trope. Still, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set in a particular period of Westerosi history that definitely allows for some venture into politics—we are in the middle of the Blackfyre rebellions, after all.
Who will star in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
Despite the rumor about Henry Cavill playing this or that character surfacing immediately after the spinoff was announced—ignoring that the only objectively correct role Cavill could have is that of Rebellion-era Robert Baratheon—when the first casting announcements started to roll out it was clear that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was going to follow in the wake of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon and so feature a mix of established names and newcomers.
The first cast members to be announced were, of course, the show’s main characters, Dunk and Egg—who are going to be portrayed by Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell respectively. Several other actors have been announced alongside them, forming the cast of the events that happen at the Tourney at Ashford Meadow in 209 AC—which is when The Hedge Knight is set.
Bertie Carvel, Sam Spruell, and Finn Bennet have officially joined the ranks of House Targaryen and are set to play Baylor Targaryen, Maker Targaryen, and Aerion Targaryen respectively. Baylor is the current Prince of Dragonstone, as well as Hand of the King to his father Daeron II. Baelor’s younger brother Maekar will soon be revealed to be Egg’s father. And Aerion, Egg’s older brother, is the unhinged Targaryen that every generation of that cursed family has to have.
Then there’s Tanzyn Crawford, set to play the Cornish puppeteer Tanselle—around whom the events of the Tourney somewhat unfold. Daniel Inge was the last actor to be announced, stepping into the shoes of the infamous Ser Lyonel Baratheon, also known as “the Laughing Storm”.
The end of the second season of House of the Dragon, though, brought with it a new wave of fresh casting announcements for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, starting out with Edward Ashley of Masters of the Air fame, who will star as Ser Steffon Fossoway, who will have a part to play in the trial of the Seven that takes place at Ashford Meadow. Shaun Thomas, seen also in How To Have Sex, will star as another Fossoway, Raymun, Steffon’s cousin and squire.
Then there’s Henry Ashton, recently seen in My Lady Jane, who instead joins House Targaryen as Daeron Targaryen—another one than the one mentioned in House of the Dragon, of course, we know they all have five names to choose from—Egg’s eldest brother and one of the rare Targaryens who have prophetic dragon dreams.
Youssef Kerkour from House of Gucci will instead take on the role of Steely Pate, a blacksmith of the Reach who will outfit Ser Duncan with new armour, while Kaos’s Daniel Monks will play Ser Manfred Dondarrion, whose path is also crossed by the show’s protagonist. Finally, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, previously seen in Avengers: Infinity War, and Danny Webb from The Regime will star as Plummer—the steward of Ashford and the master of the Tourney of 209 AC—and Ser Arlan of Pennytree—the hedge knight to whom Dunk was a squire—respectively.
What about the team behind the scenes?
We know a bit more about the people who will take up the roles of executive producers in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The people listed in the HBO announcement are George R.R. Martin (always a good sign) and Ryan Condal, who is also part of the team behind House of the Dragon. The other executive producers are Ira Parker and Vince Gerardis.
When is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms coming out?
According to a February 2024 statement by Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, reported by The Hollywood Reporter, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set to premiere sometime in late 2025.
It definitely makes sense, considering that the second half of 2024 will be entirely dedicated to the second season of House of the Dragon—while the release date is yet to be announced, we know it’s going to be in the summer of 2024 just like season one took up the months between August and October of 2022.
According to the same The Hollywood Reporter article, A Knight of the Seven Kingdom is set to start principal photography very soon. If both productions can stay on track, it could potentially mean a new ASOIAF show every year—for however long they both run.
(featured image: HBO)
Published: Aug 8, 2024 06:40 pm