Westeros

Today marks GRRM’s 78th birthday, and there’s a nice early gift for George ahead of the occasion, thanks to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms winning its very first Emmy Award in its inaugural outing!

At the 78th Emmy Awards, the series took home the award for Outstanding Stunt Performance. The award went to the stunt performers Zach Roberts, Gyula Tóth, Chris Cox and Jake Cox for their (spectacular) work on “In the Name of the Mother,” the fifth episode of the show’s first season which featured the much-anticipated trial of seven sequence.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms had received nine nominations in all, including Outstanding Drama Series, which was a great result for the show.

George nevertheless had plenty of reason to celebrate, and took part in pre-Emmy and afterparty events, as well as attending the award show alongside show runner Ira Parker and actors Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, and more from the show.

George R.R. Martin and Dexter Sol Ansell (Egg) at the Emmy afterparty.

A nice bit of news dropped today, as the Emmy Award nominees were announced and the little show that could, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, managed to score nine nominations, including a nomination in the prestigious Best Drama category! Deadline has the full list, but here’s the relevant ones for fans of the adventures of Dunk and Egg:

 
•   Outstanding Drama Series
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Ira Parker, George R.R. Martin, Sarah Bradshaw, Ryan Condal, Owen Harris and Vince Gerardis, executive producers; Aziza Barnes, Hiram Martinez, Annie Julia Wyman and Sarah Adina Smith, co-executive producers; Layla Blackman, producer; Lisa Byrne, produced by.  
 
•   Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour)
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “Seven” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Tom McCullagh, production designer; John Merry, supervising art director; Stephanie Rea, set decorator.  
 
•   Outstanding Cinematography for a Series (Half-Hour)
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “In the Name of the Mother” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Gustav Danielsson, FSF, director of photography.  
 
•   Outstanding Fantasy/Sci-Fi Costumes
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “Seven” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Lorna Ó Ríordáin, costume designer; Libby Dempster and Kyle Callanan, assistant costume designers; Rachael W. Crozier and Stephen O Rawe, costume supervisors.  
 
•   Outstanding Period or Fantasy/Sci-Fi Hairstyling
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “The Morrow” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Pippa Woods, department head hairstylist; Lucille Harding, hair supervisor; Tamara-May Richards, assistant department head hairstylist; Anna Knight, Cat Coogan and Lauren Appleby, hairstylists.  
 
•   Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “In the Name of the Mother” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Dan Romer, composer.  
 
•   Outstanding Sound Editing for a Comedy or Drama Series (Half-Hour) and Animation
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “In the Name of the Mother” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Alastair Sirkett, MPSE, supervising sound editor; Martin Cantwell, sound designer; Michele Woods, MPSE, dialogue editor; Adéle Fletcher, ADR editor; Ruth Knight, sound effects editor; Neil Stemp, music editor; Barnaby Smyth and Rebecca Glover, foley artists.  
 
•   Outstanding Special Visual Effects in a Single Episode
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “In the Name of the Mother” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Arron Roebuck, overall VFX supervisor; Paul Russo, overall VFX producer; Luke Dhand, VFX editor; Angel Rico Riesgo, VFX supervisor at El Ranchito; Sonsoles L. Aranguren, additional VFX supervisor at El Ranchito; Rocío Ruiz de Azúa, VFX producer at El Ranchito; Mike Dawson, SFX supervisor; Tom Lloyd, SFX floor supervisor; Paul Tuersley, VFX artist.  
 
•   Outstanding Stunt Performance
    A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “In the Name of the Mother” — HBO Max; HBO in association with GRRM and Friendly Wolf Pictures.
    Zach Roberts, Gyula Tóth, Chris Cox and Jake Cox, stunt performers.  

Many congratulations to HBO, as well as Ira Parker and the writing and production team.

Ahead of the June 21st release, HBO has begun to ramp up promotion of House of the Dragon‘s penultimate season. First, they released the official poster art. And now, during the upfronts going on with the press, they have released a behind the scenes video with, among other things, good looks at several of the show’s new characters who’ll all play significant roles in the Dance of the Dragons. As well, at the upfronts HBO revealed that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 2, presently filming on location in the Canary Islands, is set to return in the first couple of months of 2027.

See the video below!

Variety reports that three of the main roles for the in-production 2nd season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms have been cast. One of the names was leaked awhile ago, I believe, but the other two seem new to us—and two, at least, are exciting to us.

Lucy Boynton, Peter Mullan, and Babou Ceesay. Images CC-by-SA, by GabboT / Gage Skidmore / Andymiah

Hot on the heels of the finale of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, WaterTower Music—Warner Bros. in-house label—has announced that the season 1 soundtrack, composed by Dan Romer, is now available to stream from multiple sources such as Spotify, Soundcloud, Tidal… and Youtube. We contacted Romer after the first episode, asking particularly about the title of the closing music that impressed us so much and whether a soundtrack would be released, and he did say he hoped it’d be out quite soon. Looks like he delivered.

And speaking of that episode 1 final track, our favorite from the show, it turns out it’s titled “The Luck is Ours Alone.” Of course!

We’re back one last time (almost!) to discuss the finale of the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, and we certainly have some thoughts about the episode.

As we discuss at the end, we are considering scheduling a live stream to go over the season a last time, but we’ll see how feasible that is—been quite a few years since we last did a live stream.

The penultimate episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has aired, and Linda and Elio are back to discuss their thoughts on the episode, go over changes from “The Hedge Knight”, and discuss a bit of world-building:

See below for additional videos from HBO—the final episode trailer and the “Inside the Episode”—plus a link to the translation of Ser Arlan of Pennytree’s Dothraki(!) song from Dothraki language creator, David J. Peterson

While this notice is a bit late, we actually posted our review, discussion, and book-to-screen commentary for episode 4 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “Seven”, over on Youtube yesterday. You can see it below:

Next Sunday’s episode is titled “Seven”.

Below, you can also see the “Inside the Episode” as well as the teaser for the penultimate, 5th episode, “In the Name of the Mother.”

Just got the press release from HBO:  the 4th episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will premiere very early on HBO Max streaming, ahead of its regularly-scheduled release on the HBO cable channel. How early? Here’s what HBO has to say:

See below for the preview for the episode, as well as the Making of a Knight documentary that covers the technical aspects of the previous two episodes! And if you haven’t seen it, here’s our review of episode 3, “The Squire”.

We’ve posted our review, discussion, and book-to-screen commentary for episode 3 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “The Squire”, over on Youtube! You can see it below:

Next Sunday’s episode is titled “Seven”.

Deadline has a good their interview with Casey Bloys, Chief Content Officer of HBO, touching on a number of their shows, such as The Pitt and Heated Rivalry (which they have licensed in the US and other territories, and whose performance they are very pleased by). But of particular interest to our fellow fans would be the extended discussion of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and other projects in development… and some remarks on George R.R. Martin’s involvement.

Biggest news for us? Deadline indicates, before diving into the interview, that it’s said that the legendary animator Genndy Tartakovsky—creator of the original Star Wars: Clone Wars, Samurai Jack, and Primal—is attached to the Nine Voyages of the Sea Snake animated series about Corlys Velaryon. Interestingly, we know Ryan Condal is a big fan of Tartakovsky, and one wonders if he had any involvement in getting Tartakovsky on board.

Some choice pieces from the interview below.

A still from the Black Knight test Tartakovsky released on Instagram, a stalled Sony Pictures project.

We’ve posted our review, discussion, and book-to-screen commentary for episode 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “Hard Salt Beef”, over on Youtube! You can see it below:

Next Sunday’s episode is titled “The Squire”.

After a very long break from making use of Youtube, Linda and I have put together a video reviewing and discussing the premiere episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. We cover some notable changes from the text (very few, all considered; it is incredibly faithful), share some thoughts on the use of humor, and more.

Unfortunately, we did have some notable challenges with audio when making this video, but we think we’ve figured out the problem (RF interference from hell caused by a wireless connection) going forward. Apologies for any issues!

We’ve just posted our review of the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms over to our Features page. Here’s the start:

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the new show from HBO set 90 years prior to the events of A Game of Thrones, takes that setting’s focus on the high lords and ladies of Westeros and turns it on its head. It brings viewers into a narrow focus on the life of a lowly hedge knight, Dunk – or Ser Duncan the Tall – and his young bald squire, Egg. Adapted from George R.R. Martin’s World Fantasy Award-nominated 1998 novella “The Hedge Knight”, the much-loved story and its characters are brought to life with real warmth, while adding some new elements that at times work very well and at other times… well, mileage may vary.

I have a very vivid memory of when I first encountered “The Hedge Knight”. Linda and I had already become fans of A Game of Thrones and were eagerly awaiting A Clash of Kings. But before that, Robert Silverberg’s anthology Legends: Short Novels by the Masters of Modern Fantasy came out, and among the stories from many big name authors was “The Hedge Knight”. I remember picking it up at my university bookstore as soon as it was released, and quite literally walking home (in sweltering, humid August heat) while turning the pages of this massive book at the same time. The characters popped from the page, the spectacle of the tourney was vividly rendered, and it made the expectation for the next novel all the greater. I’m happy to say that in most ways (especially those that matter), this show is exceptionally well-adapted.

To read the rest of the review, follow the link!

Peter Claffey as Dunk and Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg

Over on its social media sites, HBO has released a new short video to give fans a close-up look at Peter Claffey, star of the forthcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms who’ll play Dunk—or Ser Duncan the Tall, as he’ll be remembered in the histories of Westeros.