By HBO’s successful fantasy series Game of Thrones concluded its eight-year run almost 5 years ago, and has since released the first season of House of the Dragon, a prequel series focused on the Targaryen family’s brutal Dance of the Dragons with a second season debuting this summer. But this isn’t the only Thrones spinoff deep in development at HBO, as the studio shifts gears to kick off production of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.
This new series will follow the adventures of Dunk and Egg, as covered in author George R. R. Martin’s short stories. With filming set to begin in the coming month and the lead cast members finally revealed, we’ve decided to gather all the information revealed so far in this article.
What is the The Hedge Knight about?
Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight is a series based on short stories written by George R. R. Martin, often referred to as “The Tales of Dunk and Egg”. So far, three short stories have been released, and the first one was titled The Hedge Knight. All three short stories were later collected in a single book released in 2015, titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
The HBO series’ first season is reportedly titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, referring both to the title of the collection and that of the first short story, which the first season is expected to cover. Future seasons may adjust the subtitle to match the next short stories.
The official logline of the show describes the story as follows:
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.
To be more precise regarding the timeline, the story in The Hedge Knight occurs approximately 90 years before the beginning of Game of Thrones and about 70 years after the beginning of the Dance of the Dragons, as depicted in House of the Dragon‘s upcoming second season.
Who are the main characters?
As you can guess from the official logline, and as readers of Martin’s short stories already know, the main characters of Knight of the Seven Kingdom: The Hedge Knight and of potential follow-up seasons are the Knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and his squire Aegon V Targaryen (Egg). Character descriptions and cast members for Dunk and Egg are described below. The main cast was revealed in a recent article by Variety.
Ser Duncan the Tall, commonly called Dunk, was born in the King’s Landing slums of Flea Bottom. Later, he became the squire of the hedge knight Ser Arlan Pennytree, until he became the titular hedge knight. As his title suggests, Dunk is very tall at almost seven feet. For a hedge knight, Dunk is rather humble and does not consider himself very smart, often recalling his Ser Arlan’s mockery “Dunk the lunk, thick as a castle wall”. Coming from the bottom of the social ladder, Dunk is destined to climb to the top and become a Knight of the Kingsguard but, first, he will have to meet his squire.
Dunk will be portrayed by Peter Claffey, an up-and-coming young actor who recently had a large role in the show Wreck, where he portrayed Cormac Kelly. Before that, Claffey had brief roles in Bad Sisters and Harry Wild. As for his height, he clocks in at 195 centimeters or 6’4″, which is a great match for Dunk’s description in the books.
Aegon “the Unlikely” Targaryen is the fifth of his family line to share the name of the Conqueror who united Westeros. As the fourth son of a fourth son, he was so far removed in the line of succession that he never planned, expected, or hoped to sit on the Iron Throne. Instead, at the young age of 9, Aegon wanted to travel the Seven Kingdoms as the humble squire to a hedge knight. To avoid being treated like royalty, Aegon would shave his head bald to remove the iconic silver Targaryen hair and refer to himself as Egg. Life would lead him to a certain hedge knight, Duncan the Tall, and the two would then become inseparable.
Egg will be portrayed by young actor Dexter Sol Ansell, who has already fostered an impressive resume for such a young age. Ansell has starred in shows The Midwitch Cuckoos as well as Hullraisers and has recently appeared in the prequel film The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes. At 10 years old, Ansell is very close to Egg’s age in the Hedge Knight short story.
Who are the main crew members?
The showrunner for A Knight of the Seven Kingdom: The Hedge Knight is House of the Dragon‘s Ira Parker, who wrote the fourth episode of Season 1. Parker will be joined by a team of four writers, the most exciting of whom is series author George R. R. Martin, whose last TV episode was in Season 4 of Game of Thrones. Other known writers are Annie Julia Wyman (The Chair, Tokyo Vice), Aziza Barnes (Snowfall, Teenage Bounty Hunters), Hiram Martinez (The Last Ship, Snowfall).
House of the Dragon‘s showrunner Ryan Condal will serve as producer alongside series author Martin and his manager Vince Gerardis. Gerardis’ assistant Ti Mikkel is also attached as as producer. Besides Martin, Wyman, Barnes, and Martinez are listed as producers as well as writers.
As for the show’s directors, we only know of one director so far, Harry Bradbeer. Bradbeer is known for directing the two Enola Holmes films and shows such as Fleabag and Killing Eve. The number of episodes Bradbeer will direct is not yet known, and it’s possible he will direct the entire series.
When will filming begin and when will the show be released?
Filming for Knight of the Seven Kingdom: The Hedge Knight is set to begin on June 3, 2024, under the production title “Sweetfoot”, named after Dunk’s trusted horse. Meanwhile, HBO is kicking off the show’s intensive pre-production in Northern Ireland, where Game of Thrones was also filmed.
Currently, the number of episodes is not confirmed, but based on a previous remark from George R. R. Martin, it is expected to be 6 episodes long. Television productions usually require something between 2 and 4 weeks of filming per episode, depending on the episode’s filming complexity, so we can expect filming to last between 3 and 6 months.
Regarding the release date, Warner Bros. CEO David Zaslav has revealed that the series will premiere in Late 2025, probably between the second and third seasons of House of the Dragon. This means there will be no gap year for Thrones content.
As always, we will follow the filming of A Knight of the Seven Kingdom: The Hedge Knight as closely as we can, so expect more casting news and behind-the-scenes details in the coming months.
