Game of Thrones’ Next Prequel Gets a Surprising Release (and Renewal) Update

Author George R.R. Martin gave some surprising updates on the new prequel series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight on Tuesday on his blog. He revealed that filming is complete, and that it will premiere later this year — “Maybe in the fall.” Perhaps most surprisingly of all, Martin seemed to casually reveal that the show has been renewed, and that work is underway on Season 2. The author is delighted with the final product, and is eager for fans to see it for themselves. However, some fans are concerned, as this is an adaptation of an unfinished novella series, so it could face the same challenges as Game of Thrones.

Martin wrote that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finished filming “months ago, and moved right on to post production. I’ve seen all six episodes now (the last two in rough cuts, admittedly), and I loved them.” He praised the cast and crew — particularly the writers who adapted his novella for into a screenplay.

“It’s as faithful as adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for (and you all know how increedibly reasonable I am on that particular subject,)” Martin wrote. Further down the post, he shared that “The series will make its debut later this year, I am now told. How late, I could not say. Maybe in the fall. I hope you will love the show as much as I do. Meanwhile, we’ll be moving on to The Sworn Sword, the second tale of Dunk & Egg.”

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That sounds like a renewal, though so far HBO has not made any big announcement to that effect. As Martin explained, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is an adaptation of his novella series, The Tales of Dunk and Egg. These are prequels that start about 90 years before A Game of Thrones, telling smaller, more self-contained stories about a wandering hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, who is secretly Prince Aegon Targaryen.

Martin has published three of these novellas so far, and has described plans for writing up to nine more of them. He seemed to reiterate plans for the next book in this blog post, writing “once I finish The Winds of Winter, I will need to get hopping on The Village Hero,” which is the next planned installment. That may be disappointing to fans who want Martin to get right to work on the final book in A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dream of Spring.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is scheduled to premiere sometime this year, and according to Martin we should expect it in the fall. All three novellas are collected in a book titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is available now in print, digital and audiobook formats, along with Martin’s other books.