News around HBO’s upcoming Game Of Thrones spinoffs is rare and often not great. Mostly, we hear about various spinoffs being cancelled, like the ill-fated Jon Snow series. When it comes to the story of Dunk and Egg, the news tends to be a bit better.
Not long ago we learned who would be playing Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire, and the casting choices seem great. Now we’ve learned three new things: The series will get a new name; a Black Mirror director will be directing half its episodes; and we now know the episode count.
The new title is: A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms. This is simply a truncated version of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. While I’m glad that mouthful has been abandoned, I wish it was just called The Hedge Knight, which is half the number of words and catchier, though less obviously tied to the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros, thus less valuable as a title for a Game Of Thrones spinoff.
The number of episodes is a bit more disappointing. We will only get six for the first season, which is four fewer than a normal Thrones season or Season 1 of House of the Dragon. Season 2 of HotD will have 8. Then again, the Dunk & Egg novellas are lots shorter, so it makes sense to some degree.
Finally, Owen Harris will be directing half of these according to The Hollywood Reporter. Harris is known for his excellent Black Mirror episodes “Be Right Back” (S2E1) and “San Junipero” (S3E4). He’s also directed the premiere episode of Jordan Peele’s Twilight Zone and four episodes in Peacock’s adventure-thriller series Mrs. Davis, which reminds me I really need to finish that show.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms releases sometime in 2025. It’s being written and executive produced by Ira Parker and George Martin, who will still surely find time to finish Winds Of Winter. House of the Dragon returns on June 16th.
P.S.
SPOILERS FOR GAME OF THRONES AND A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS BELOW
I just watched the scene in Game Of Thrones where Maester Aemon dies, and on his deathbed, his last words are to Egg, his little brother. “Egg, Egg,” he says. “Egg, I dreamed I was old!” It’s a really heartbreaking scene, but it also ties directly to the new show.
Egg—or Aegon—was Aemon’s little brother, born in 200 AC (Aemon was born in 202 AC). The prequel series is about Egg as a young boy, so Aemon would have been around at the time, just a couple years older. It’s amazing to think that he’s still around nearly 100 years later.
