How HBO’s Best Fantasy Show Could Run for 15 Seasons (& Break a Massive Record)

HBO has long established itself as one of the kings of the fantasy genre on TV, and that reign could last a lot longer thanks to one of its best shows. Even in the 2000s, it was expanding ideas of what small screen fantasy could be with the ambitious Carnivàle, which was cancelled after just two seasons. That whet the appetite for more, and it finally arrived in 2011 with Game of Thrones, which changed everything not only for the fantasy landscape, but television as a whole.

Since then, HBO has had several others in the genre – notably, Thrones prequel House of the Dragon and the His Dark Materials adaptation. But its best ongoing fantasy show right now is another from Westeros: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which has surpassed HOTD, at least in terms of Season 1.

The show is based on George R.R. Martin’s The Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, set around 90 years before Game of Thrones and telling the story of Ser Duncan the Tall, a hedge knight, and his squire, Egg. It’s much smaller in budget and scale, but makes up for it with humor and heart, and it still packs a punch in the action department. The first season made it one of the best HBO shows of 2026 so far, but it’s a series that could feasibly run much, much longer.

A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Could Become HBO’s Longest-Running Show (If We’re Lucky)

The record for HBO’s longest-running scripted series is held by Curb Your Enthusiasm, with the Larry David comedy wrapping up in 2024 after 12 seasons (the longest-running unscripted series is Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel, which had 29 seasons). A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms could feasibly equal Curb‘s record, and perhaps even surpass it. Martin as ideas for as many as 12 novellas, and showrunner Ira Parker has spoken about wanting to do 12-15 seasons of the series if possible, working alongside Martin to break down the stories if he doesn’t get that many books written.

The precedent of Curb isn’t a bad one to look at in this case, and not just because of its season count: it also followed a non-traditional release pattern, with seven seasons released in its first 10 years, then a six-year gap, and so on, meaning it spanned a quarter of a century. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms would need to do something a little similar, but take it much further. Parker has spoken about doing 4-5 seasons, then returning a decade later for another 4-5, then doing a final 4-5 seasons another decade after that.

It’s an extremely ambitious idea, especially when we haven’t even reached A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 yet (it’ll hit HBO and HBO Max in 2027), and would be very difficult to actually pull off in terms of logistics, HBO’s backing, and bringing its two lead actors back each time. But in terms of story and character arcs, it does make a lot of sense. Dunk and Egg’s stories stretch on for another 50 years in A Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones lore, and while we know the broadstrokes and where they end up, there’s a lot in between that could easily be fleshed out.

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Egg’s identity and future, with him eventually becoming King Aegon V Targaryen, makes this even better. It allows for built in changes and development that would ensure the show feels fresh even as it gets to double-figure seasons. The chance to follow Egg from young squire to king, and actually going deep into his reign, could be incredible, and unlike anything else we’ve seen in the franchise thus far (where with someone like Bran Stark, becoming king is where it ends).

Another advantage of this is that it would ensure A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms gets the ending it deserves. If it were to only adapt the three novellas written by Martin, then it wouldn’t feel anywhere close to finished, with no sense of closure nor building to a natural climax. Ideally, it would go the full 12-15 seasons, and finish things up with an event known as the Tragedy at Summerhall, which is what rounds out their story.

Even if it instead just ended with Egg becoming king, it’d still need several more seasons – and many years – to get there. Seeing the actors play that out, rather than recasting, and watching them go on the full journeys with those characters could be something special, and while it’d require a lot of investment from everyone (including audiences), if it can sustain the quality of Season 1, it’d definitely pay off.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 is available to stream on HBO Max.

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