Key Points
Showrunner Ira Parker sets up where we are in Game of Thrones history with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Parker explains why the spinoff doesn’t have an opening titles sequence and how that decision “serves our show.”
“We’re not with the lords and ladies, the kings and queens,” he says of the six-episode tale.
Viewers will notice something right off the bat that distinguishes A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms from the other two Game of Thrones series we’ve seen thus far: There’s no opening titles sequence.
Instead of a sprawling piece of animation with a thrumming orchestral soundtrack, the latest Westeros-set spinoff includes a simple title card with medieval typography in between the beginning action of each episode. It’s a clear signal to audiences that they’re about to experience something different than what they’re used to.
It’s on par with George R. R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas on which it’s based. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms doesn’t have the massive scale of, say, House of the Dragon. This is more like a snackable character-driven story set in the world of Game of Thrones.
“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.” Ira Parker, a former writer on House of the Dragon and co-creator of this next six-episode series with Martin, tells Entertainment Weekly. “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.”
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Peter Claffey’s Ser Duncan the Tall on ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
Irish actor Peter Claffey, a former rugby player who appeared on Bad Sisters and the film Small Things Like These, co-headlines A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as Dunk, a squire to a “hedge knight,” a wandering defender of the realm unbound to any specific lord or house. When his master, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), dies, Dunk knights himself Ser Duncan the Tall and goes off to compete in the tourney at Ashford Meadow to earn some coin, setting in motion certain events that will have ripple effects for the larger world.
With a wooden shield, a rope repurposed as his sword hilt, and three horses whom he regularly converses with, Ser Dunk soon meets Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a diminutive bald-headed boy who’s determined to squire for Ser Dunk.
Season 1 adapts the main events of “The Hedge Knight” (1998), the first novella from Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg, which also includes “The Sworn Sword” (2003) and “The Mystery Knight” (2010). However, Parker became a Westeros historian, turning to Martin’s wider literary works to immerse himself in the specifics of this particular period of the fantasy universe.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place well after the events of House of the Dragon, which is still filming its third and penultimate season. Though, it’s no spoiler to say that show’s Targaryen civil war leads to the decimation of that empire and the eventual extinction of dragonkind. With the rise of Dunk, we’re just over 50 years after the death of the last dragon, but “that wasn’t even much of a dragon,” Parker notes. “It was a sort of gnarled thing that it couldn’t even fly. If you can’t fly, what are you really? They’re just a fancy lizard.”
At this time period, “Nobody’s thinking about magic,” the showrunner further explains. “This could basically be 14th century Britain. This is hard nose, grind it out, gritty, medieval knights, cold with a really light, hopeful touch. It’s a wonderful place to be. We are ground up in this series, we are starting right at the bottom. We’re not with the lords and ladies, the kings and queens.”
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Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg on ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
Unlike the previous shows, Parker made a promise to Martin, who serves as an executive producer, that 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.
“To find a totally different version of this world that everybody seems to know so well was very, very appealing,” he continues. “The fact that we live in this world, though, where magic once existed is very interesting to me. This is the ground and the grass that has seen dragons and dragon fire before. So everything is just like how the world is, but a little stranger, a little different.”
When Dunk and Egg arrive at the Ashford tourney, they meet a host of characters, from blacksmith Steely Pate (Youssef Kerkour) to Dornish puppeteer Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford) to lords like Ser Lyonel “Laughing Storm” Baratheon (Daniel Ings) to a pair of Fossoways, Ser Steffon (Edward Ashley) and his cousin/squire Raymun (Shaun Thomas). Armed only with the ideals of how a knight should act, Dunk maintains a naive innocence to how Westeros society works as he’s forced to navigate an arena with little-to-no coin to his name.
Parker forged a personal connection to this character, saying, “You don’t exactly know the final destination, but you just keep at it. That’s all Dunk has. That’s his only superpower. He gets up and, one foot in front of the other, he keeps going.”
Then the Targaryens arrive. The heir to the Iron Throne, Prince Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel), attends the tourney with his brother, Prince Maekar (Sam Spruell), and his more malevolent nephew, Prince Aerion “Brightflame” (Finn Bennett), who’s competing. They’re on edge because Maekar’s other sons are M.I.A., and based on their welcoming by the crowds, the Targaryen name has clearly lost a lot of its luster in the eyes of the small folk.
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Peter Claffey as Ser Duncan the Tall on ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’
Parker explains why. “They find themselves finally without the thing that put them in power, which is such a precarious position to be in,” he says. “Fifty years on from the dragons, people are starting to ask the question, ‘Well, why are we still letting them be in power?’”
It’s part of the reason why Parker theorizes the Targaryens even attend the Ashford Meadow tourney in the first place. “They normally maybe wouldn’t have even bothered with this backwater little town in the middle of the Reach,” he continues. “But they do because they have to be seen as still in charge.”
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Martin, who hasn’t been so publicly supportive of House of the Dragon in the past, came out with glowing praise for Parker’s take on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, writing in a blog post how he “loved” all six of the season 1 episodes. Now Parker faces the scrutiny of the general TV audience.
Making the show forced him to reflect on what fans of Game of Thrones liked about the previous series. “Is it the dead coming to kill mankind? Is it the dragons? Is it the politics? Is it the big roving POVs, warring families?” he questions. Was it the opening titles sequence? Not having one, he admits, “was probably the most stressful decision I made on this.” He clarifies, “It was not entered into lightly, but it serves our show.”
This isn’t a sprawling fantasy epic. There’s no police intrigue. As Parker says, “We have one character and a lot of heart.”
Parker will next preview A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms at New York Comic Con with Martin, Claffey, and Ansell with a morning panel on Thursday, Oct. 9 at 12 p.m. ET. The series will premiere on HBO and HBO Max early next year.
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