{"id":2236158,"date":"2026-01-15T16:15:06","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:15:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2236158"},"modified":"2026-01-15T16:15:06","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T16:15:06","slug":"exclusive-a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-creator-challenges-critical-got-fans-enjoy-bashing-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/exclusive-a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-creator-challenges-critical-got-fans-enjoy-bashing-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive | &#8216;A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms&#8217; creator challenges critical &#8216;GoT&#8217; fans: &#8216;Enjoy bashing us&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content%2Fuploads%2Fsites%2F2%2F2026%2F01%2Fgame-of-thrones-spinoff-creator.jpg?quality%3D90%26strip%3Dall\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>He\u2019s the newest Maester in Westeros.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Ira Parker, the creator \/ showrunner for\u00a0\u201c<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/13\/entertainment\/game-of-thrones-spinoff-a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-review\/\">A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,\u201d <\/a>HBO\u2019s third show in the \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d franchise, received a lot of direction from George R. R. Martin.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI spent a week out there at the beginning of this whole process,\u00a0in Santa Fe [New Mexico, where Martin lives] just throwing around ideas with him,\u201d Parker exclusively told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Martin was] pretty much always my first read on any script,\u201d he added of the famed author. \u201cI would send him scripts, even before I sent them to HBO. We\u2019d have great conversations about them. I told him pretty early on that I wouldn\u2019t put anything in that he didn\u2019t want me to.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>\u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d trailer. <span class=\"credit\">HBO Max<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption> George R.R. Martin at a Q&amp;A in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 12, 2026.  <span class=\"credit\">ZUMAPRESS.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<aside class=\"single__inline-module aligncenter wp-block-nypost-editor-primary-tag\">\n<\/aside>\n<p>Premiering Sunday, Jan. 18 on HBO (10 p.m.), \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d is based on Martin\u2019s <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/r.nypostlink.com\/?btn_ref=org-19984c113c692001&amp;btn_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FTales-Dunk-Egg%2Fs%3Fk%3DTales%20of%20Dunk%20and%20Egg%26tag%3Dnypost-20%26asc_refurl%3Dhttps%3A%2F%2Fnypost.com%2F2026%2F01%2F13%2Fentertainment%2Fgame-of-thrones-spinoff-a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-review%2F%26asc_source%3Dweb\">\u201cTales of Dunk and Egg\u201d <\/a>novellas. HBO has already renewed it for a second season.<\/p>\n<p>Martin has stated the novella that Season 1 is based on (\u201cThe Hedge Knight\u201d) is \u201cthe best thing he\u2019s ever written,\u201d Parker explained. \u201cSo, I wanted to make sure that we got it right and that everybody got to enjoy what he enjoys about these novellas.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Set around a hundred years before the events of \u201cGame of Thrones,\u201d the show follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a k a Dunk, (Peter Claffey) a hedge knight, (a nomadic knight with no land or money), and Egg, (Dexter Sol Ansell), a young boy who becomes his squire.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The show is lighter in tone than \u201cGoT,\u201d and also smaller in scope, as Season 1 is a mere six episodes that run 30 to 40 minutes apiece.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s not that we don\u2019t go to the deep dark places that \u2018GoT\u2019 does. But, it gives you a different sort of character to root for,\u201d Parker explained.\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption> Ira Parker at a premiere party for \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 13, 2026.  <span class=\"credit\">ZUMAPRESS.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Dunk (Peter Claffey) and Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) in \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">HBO Max<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cGame of Thrones\u201d had underdog characters too, such as Peter Dinklage\u2019s Tyrion, but Parker pointed out that he had \u201csharp wit.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>\u201c[Dunk] definitely does not have that. So, he\u2019s a different sort of underdog character,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe wanted to make sure that the tone was a reflection of who Dunk is. He\u2019s our only [point of view] character. And so it needed to feel unpolished, and vulgar at times, and also funny and bumbling.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The creator said that Dunk tries to be, \u201ca serious person, but he\u2019s not. And he tries to be a hero, but he\u2019s not. That\u2019s hopefully a very relatable journey for a lot of people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Peter Claffey in \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">HBO Max<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Peter Claffey in \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">HBO Max<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The \u201cGoT\u201d fans can be opinionated \u2013 just see the <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/01\/12\/entertainment\/kit-harington-was-livid-over-game-of-thrones-petition-to-redo-season-8\/\">infamous fan petition to remake Season 8<\/a> of the original show after its series finale.\u00a0Parker, however, isn\u2019t worried about feedback.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of the fun of this job is knowing that people are going to weigh in\u2026You want people to interact. You want to be part of the discussion. The worst is that you could just put something out there, and nobody ever talks about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf they have a violent response to it, then that\u2019s their right. And I hope that they enjoy bashing us as much as possible on the Internet and anywhere else that they want to do that,\u201d he told The Post. \u201cIt\u2019s very much welcomed. We welcome all opinions here. We\u2019re quite faithful to the novella. I think anyone who really loved those books will hopefully really like our show as well.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>Dexter Sol Ansel as \u201cEgg\u201d in \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.\u201d  <span class=\"credit\">HBO Max<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The original \u201cGoT\u201d also ran into trouble when it ran out of source material, since Martin notoriously hasn\u2019t finished the books.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe nice part is that we know basically what happens to [Dunk and Egg] throughout their life. So, it\u2019s not like we have to find an ending.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d will have fewer \u201cloose ends\u201d to tie up than \u201cGoT\u201d \u2014\u00a0and it\u2019s also \u201ca lot less complicated.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIts about two boys, basically, who meet each other and help each other along the way. It\u2019 s a father \/ son dynamic, a brother dynamic, a mentor \/ mentee situation. I think it\u2019s a very human story, and it\u2019s a simple story. We know what the end points are, and we know certain things that happen to them within their life. So, we\u2019re in no danger of going off course.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<figure class=\"nyp-slideshow-modal-image wp-block-image aligncenter size-large\"><figcaption>George R R Martin, Dexter Sol Ansell, Peter Claffey and Ira Parker at the premiere for \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d in Berlin, Germany, on Jan. 14, 2026.  <span class=\"credit\">BACKGRID<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Currently, there are three novellas in the \u201cTales of Dunk and Egg\u201d series.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe truth is that it could very reasonably be three seasons. Do the three novellas,\u201d Parker revealed. \u201cGeorge is actively \u2013 I don\u2019t know about actively, but he is writing another novella for this series. They\u2019re only 90 pages or so. So, who knows, we could have another one!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The creator added, \u201cI love writing in this world. I hope we get to do it as long as an audience lets us do it. We haven\u2019t aired yet, so we\u2019ll see what people think of us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source celebrity.land \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>He\u2019s the newest Maester in Westeros.\u00a0 Ira Parker, the creator \/ showrunner for\u00a0\u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,\u201d HBO\u2019s third show in the \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d franchise, received a lot of direction from George R. R. Martin. \u201cI spent a week out there at the beginning of this whole process,\u00a0in Santa Fe [New Mexico, where [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2236159,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25174],"tags":[21741,25404,330562,389623,21917,309839,22205,21913],"class_list":["post-2236158","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gossip","tag-entertainment","tag-exclusive","tag-game-of-thrones","tag-george-rr-martin","tag-hbo","tag-hbo-max","tag-television","tag-tv"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Exclusive-A-Knight-of-the-Seven-Kingdoms-creator-challenges.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236158","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2236158"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236158\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2236160,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2236158\/revisions\/2236160"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2236159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2236158"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2236158"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2236158"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}