Westeros
The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Domain
News
In a big presentation to announce their upcoming plans, including the launch of a new streaming service combining HBO MAX and Discovery+ called MAX, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that they had ordered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight straight to series (no pilot episode) with the following log-line describing the basic idea of the show, which is based on the Dunk & Egg novellas:
A century before the events of Game of Thrones, two unlikely heroes wandered Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.
Fans have long wanted to see Dunk & Egg brought to the screen, as they give a very unique look into the Seven Kingdoms and the Targaryens from the eyes of a man of low birth who rises to great fame over his lifetime. Notably, HBO has also shared details about the writers and executive producers for this series.
Per Variety:
Martin will serve as writer and executive producer, as will Ira Parker, who was a co-executive producer on Season 1 of “House of the Dragon.” “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon” vets Ryan Condal and Vince Gerardis will serve as executive producers.
Before people hare off on GRRM as a writer, it’s worth recalling that there was some talk of his being a writer on House of the Dragon, and his involvement in the writing of the pilot is a large part of why he is listed as co-creator of that show. So it may well be that George’s writing efforts will be focused on setting up the series rather than writing indiviudal episodes. At the same time, a script a season is about a month of his time, he remarked in the past, so perhaps his having a personal hand in things won’t be bad?
Purely speculatively, we wonder if the title suggests that in fact this will be a limited series rather than a full series. Would the idea then be to occasionally do a new one to fill in between seasons of House of the Dragon? There’s two more novellas besides, “The Sworn Sword” and “The Mystery Knight”, George mostly has a fourth written, and he has ideas for as many as a dozen stories in total. Fans have sometimes complained about the delay in producing more of these novellas (and other writings), but we ourselves have wondered that, if given the opportunity, George might not see it as appropriate to simply continue and complete the Dunk & Egg story on the screen rather than between the pages of a book, especially if he has a direct hand in the production and writing of a show.
In any case, color us excited!
Tags: Vince Gerardis, The Hedge Knight, Ryan Condal, MAX, Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Ira Parker, HBO, George R.R. Martin | PermaLink