HBO has a long history with fantasy TV shows, and it could have a long future as well, especially if its best series gets to fulfil its true potential, which hasn’t always been the case. Its first foray into the genre, Carnivàle, lasted only two seasons before being cancelled. Game of Thrones ran for eight seasons, but ask author George R.R. Martin and he’ll say it could’ve gone for 10 at the very least. House of the Dragon, meanwhile, is set to end after Season 4 – and like with Thrones, that’s the choice of the showrunner (in this case, Ryan Condal), rather than HBO.
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And then there’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the younger, smaller, sillier little brother of the Westeros franchise, which, after its stellar first season, is HBO’s best current fantasy show (as good as HOTD is). While it’s still very early days, given there’s only been one season, this is actually the Game of Thrones show that could do what that one didn’t and run for 10 seasons, if not even more. Showrunner Ira Parker has hopes to tell many more stories with its two main characters, Dunk, a hedge knight, and Egg, his squire (but secretly Prince Aegon Targaryen). He gave a detailed outline of this to Decider, saying:
“What I would love to do: George has five stories of sort of Egg the boy, which is, I think, a nice thing to do right now while Dexter [Sol Ansell] is still young and his voice is, you know, squeaky. It will be cracking shortly and he’ll be growing up. But we want to follow him for those five [stories]. Then at the end of that fifth one, he sort of becomes the prince again. Then, the next couple would take place in a different [setting]. Not just on the road, but in a place like Summerhall or a place like King’s Landing. That’s the middle section… Of course, the last [section] is Egg the king.”
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ Plan Is Great – But Difficult To Pull Off
Even just executing the first part of Parker’s plan would be great. We’ve seen a lot of fantasy shows based on books get cancelled before they can complete their stories – things like Shadow & Bone on Netflix, or The Wheel of Time on Prime Video – and five seasons of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms would be a solid result. There are actually only three published novellas from Martin so far, so it would exceed the source material, though the author has plans for as many as 12 in total, and we know books four and five would take Dunk and Egg to Winterfell and the riverlands, in some order.
Still, the prospect of more would be great. Parker has previously said this, expressing hopes for 12-15 seasons of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. This specific approach gives us a better idea of exactly how it’d work, and also might be a little more achievable, if it’s just bringing the actors back for a couple of seasons at a time rather than filming commitments of five years or more for each section. He acknowledges that Ansell and Peter Claffey may go on to have big, successful careers, but hopes they could return, because he wouldn’t recast the roles. He said:
“You know, everybody wants to go and do their own thing, and I hope Peter and Dexter have absolutely huge careers. I hope Dexter is the new Leonardo DiCaprio in the Titanic reboot and Peter Claffey should be James Bond. I want them to go and have their careers and I would love to come back every now and then and just do one or two more in the middle of their lives.”
Parker also notes, crucially, that “none of this has been discussed with HBO.” Well, hopefully he will have that conversation at some point, and they should be on board. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is already a streaming success, with Season 2 being filmed and a third season at least, looking very likely. But running for 10, 12, or 15 seasons would be beneficial. It’d be something unique, and also a chance to tell their full stories. Without going so long, there’s a risk of not having closure for Dunk and Egg, because we know there are decades of their lives together worth telling, and it’d be great to see that on HBO.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 is expected to release on HBO and HBO Max in 2027. Season 1 is currently available to stream on HBO Max.
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