Westeros
The 'A Song of Ice and Fire' Domain
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With a month to go until the release of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO has released its first behind-the-scenes look at the show with sound bites from showrunner Ira Parker, as well as George R.R. Martin, Peter Claffey, and more!
HBO has also released a number of new stills from the show, featuring the principal cast, which you can see below.
And here it is, folks, the much-anticipated trailer to HBO Max’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms:
And here’s the link to the livestream to the NYCC panel, courtesy of ReedPop and Popverse:
Entertainment Weekly has the first exclusive interview with Knight of the Seven Kingdoms show-runner Ira Parker, ahead of the first public preview of the show at New York Comic Con this coming Thursday during the panel, “HBO / HBO Max presents A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms – Journey into Westeros with Dunk and Egg”.
In the interview, a few interesting points come up. Front and center is the fact that for thematic reasons, this show will not open with the expansive opening title of its predecessors, but a simple title card before launching right into the story. Parker states to EW:
“All decisions came down to Dunk, trying to channel the type of person he is into every aspect of this show, even the title sequence… The title sequences on the original [Game of Thrones] and House of Dragon are big and epic and incredible. Ramin Djawadi’s score is orchestral and large and beautiful. That’s not really Dunk’s M.O. He’s plain and he’s simple and he’s to-the-point. He doesn’t have a lot of flash to him.”
Parker then goes on to note that he promised George R.R. Martin that, per EW, “he would never shift to a perspective of anyone in the upper class. Viewers will always stick with Dunk, Egg, and this lower rim of Westeros society: the armorers, the performers, the barmaids, the whores, and the like.”
And then he says some rather interesting things about the state of House Targaryen at the time of the tourney at Ashford. More on that below, plus how to watch the panel livestreamed courtesy of Popverse!
George R.R. Martin with star Peter Claffey and show runner Ira Parker (right).
George R.R. Martin has posted to his “Not a Blog” to discuss the big news that HBO has ordered A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight (a working title, GRRM notes, that is not finalized) straight to series. George goes into some more detail about the project, pointing out that he first floated the Dunk & Egg stories for adaptation seven years ago, so things can move slowly… until they don’t. He also notes that despite reports (spurred by his own remarks that some things had been shelved, and some shifts of the Starling Inc. website that we reported on here), both the 10,000 Ships and Sea Snake shows remain in development. But more on that later.
On A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, George has some particular new details to share:
Our premiere season will be an adaptation of the first of the three published novellas, “The Hedge Knight,” the tale of how Dunk & Egg first met during a tournament at Ashford Meadow. The pilot script is already written, and I think it’s terrific. It was written by Ira Parker, who is no stranger to Westeros. He was part of Ryan Condal’s writing staff for the first season of HOUSE OF THE DRAGON, and wrote the fourth episode of Hot D’s first season, “King of the Narrow Sea.” That’s the one where Prince Daemon returns to King’s Landing after conquering the Stepstones, and takes Princess Rhaenyra down into the stews of Flea Bottom. Ryan Condal is on board as well, as an Executive Producer. So am I.
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.
