A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight premieres later this year, but it may leave some fans of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon disappointed. The show will be much smaller in scale than the others, and less fantastical, with a focus on knighthood and medieval life in Westeros but little magic. The show will have no white walkers, and perhaps most devastating of all, no dragons. However, the story of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg have enough heart to make up for all that — as long as fans give it a chance.
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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is an adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s ongoing novella series The Tales of Dunk & Egg, which is a prequel to A Song of Ice and Fire starting about 90 years before A Game of Thrones. It takes place right between the extinction of dragons and their return via Daenerys Targaryen. In the timeline of Martin’s books, it takes place 56 years after the death of the last dragon, but even that was a small, sickly dragon that never flew to war or breathed fire. By the time of this story, it’s been at least seven decades since Westeros saw a true dragon-rider.
That’s not to say that dragons won’t be an important symbol to this story. House Targaryen is still firmly in control of the Seven Kingdoms, and they rely on their connection with these mythical beasts to inspire awe and obedience from their subjects. This can manifest in good ways or bad ways — One of the main characters in this story is the Targaryen prince Aerion Brightflame, who is mentioned several times in the main series as a prime example of “Targaryen madness.” Years after this story, he will go on to die by drinking wildfire, believing it will transform him into a dragon himself.
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The Latest on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
HBO officially ordered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight last year after years of development. It filmed from June to September, and it was scheduled to premiere sometime in 2025. On Tuesday, Martin gave us some of the biggest updates on the series so far — it is well into the post-production phase, with rough cuts of the episode already finished. It will likely premiere in the fall, and Martin loves the finished product.
Martin also seemed to reveal that the show has been renewed for a second season. Martin has written three novellas in the series so far, and he wrote that “we’ll be moving on to” the second one, The Sword Sword. He also wrote that he plans to tackle the fourth novella, The Village Hero, after he finishes The Winds of Winter, suggesting that he wants to get the source material prepared before this show can catch up with him. He has mentioned plans for as many as 12 novellas in total, though more often he has described a plan for eight or nine installments.
This prequel will premiere later this year, with an official premiere date and a trailer coming soon. In the meantime, all three novellas are collected in a book also titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which is available now in print, digital and audiobook formats.
