How Much A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms S2 Will Tell the Targaryen Story I’ve Been Dreaming of Revealed by Showrunner

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 was a mostly contained story, but it did make several references to a part of Westeros’ history that continues to impact the Seven (or Nine) Kingdoms. While the focus was rightly kept on Dunk and Egg, the Targaryen civil war known as the First Blackfyre Rebellion served as an important backdrop. This happened around 13 years before A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ timeline, and saw the bastard Daemon Blackfyre make a claim for the throne against his half-brother, King Daeron II Targaryen. It was a violent, bloody conflict that divided the realm, but the Targaryens emerged victorious.

The first season of the show had several mentions of these events: we heard of how Ser Arlan of Pennytree fought at the Battle of the Redgrass Field, Egg had a song about the Blackfyre Rebellion, and the flashbacks to Dunk in Episode 5 showed the aftermath of one battle. Based on the books of George R.R. Martin, this should very much continue in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2. When asked by Variety just how much the Blackfyre Rebellion would feature in the second season, showrunner and co-creator Ira Parker said:

“The Blackfyre Rebellions are in and out of their lives for Dunk and Egg, all the way up until pretty late I’d say. The Second Blackfyre Rebellion factors in pretty heavily into one of the books, and obviously we make a few mentions to it in Season 1. But I’d say it’s important background and informs a lot of the characters that they come in contact with. Essentially, we are 15 years outside of a massive civil war, and so there’s still a lot of those lingering resentments. There are certainly a lot of open wounds left.

“One of the promises I made to George very early on is that I really wouldn’t create story. We are adding to the character and the world. We’re writing this TV show as if George had written a novel instead of a novella. So we’re just filling out things that he naturally probably would have done. But we don’t send people on any side quests, and we try not to get too bogged down in history. These are nice, little contained journeys.”

The Blackfyre Rebellions Will Continue To Be Important, Even Beyond A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Season 2

Without getting into serious book spoiler territory, the Blackfyre Rebellions will continue be important not only in Season 2, but also Season 3 of the show (assuming it happens). In The Sworn Sword, the second of Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas and the book that’ll give the second season its story, it’s once again crucial historical context that informs certain characters.

The plot finds Dunk and Egg in the service of Ser Eustace Osgrey, an old knight in the Reach, and getting embroiled in a petty dispute between him and his local rival, Lady Rohanne Webber. The divisions from the Rebellion will rise again in that story, meaning the show will have to reference and explain more of it.

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Going into The Mystery Knight, it becomes a more direct part of the story, as there is a secret plot for another rebellion that emerges in that book. Indeed, there are no fewer than five Blackfyre Rebellions in total across Game of Thrones history, most of which take place during the lives of Dunk and Egg. So, if the show does run for longer – Parker has hopes for as many as 15 seasons of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – then it could cover all of them in some way.

I’ve long wanted the Blackfyre Rebellions to be told in a Game of Thrones spinoff show, ideally as an anthology that covers each one. That might not happen, but A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms having them play out, either directly or as background, could be a neat way of achieving a similar effect.

Still, it’d be nice to have the first one told fully on-screen, which could be a great standalone limited series that brings back several characters from the show when they were younger. It would be a prequel to a prequel, but it’s definitely a story worth adapting.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 2 will release on HBO and HBO Max in 2027. All six episodes of Season 1 are available to stream on HBO Max.

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