House of the Dragon has come roaring back to screens for seasons 2, but it’s just one of many Game of Thrones spin-offs HBO has planned. And the second one is relatively imminent, according to a new update from George RR Martin himself.
Commenting on the first officially released photo of Peter Claffey’s Ser Duncan the Tall, Martin talks about the release date for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on his famous blog:
“Peter Claffey will be playing our favorite hedge knight, and he’s already been sighted around Ashford. HBO was kind enough to provide a picture… and hot damn, he looks as though he just stepped out of the pages of LEGENDS.
Filming started last week in Belfast, Northern Ireland, where much of the original GAME OF THRONES as shot. Based on my novella “The Hedge Knight,” the new show will debut early next year, in 2025. Only six episodes for this one. A novella is considerably shorter than a novel (particularly one of my novels), so there’s less source material.
I hear that everything is going very well just now. Next month I will get to see for myself.”
So, early 2025, which would mean there would likely be only six months or so from when House of the Dragon ends in August and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms begins.
I remain a little confused about what exactly is being adapted here, given that while yes, this is “less source material,” the full saga here is actually made up of three novels, The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight. I would assume the plan is to adapt them all, meaning more than just a single six-episode season here, but that hasn’t been made explicit yet.
House of the Dragon is indeed getting a season 3 itself, and if things work out, that’s probably three seasons of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as well. HBO has other shows in the works including another era of the Targaryens and something about the Sea Snake. Other ideas like a Jon Snow sequel series have been killed, and right now it’s all prequel content being considered. I would absolutely not rule out them going back to that original Thrones well someday, however.
For now, we’ll look forward to seeing Dunk and Egg onscreen soon enough, and perhaps sooner than we all thought.
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