The third entry in the Game of Thrones universe is coming to HBO in 2026, and this series will be the shortest yet.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms tells the story of Ser Duncan the Tall (“Dunk”) and his young squire Aegon Targaryen (“Egg”), and consists of only six half-hour episodes. The two prior series, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, produced anywhere from six to 10 hour-long episodes per season. All are based on George R. R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book franchise, with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms being adapted from The Hedge Knight, the first of the author’s three Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. (The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight complete the set.)
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“I still look at The Hedge Knight as one of the best things I’ve ever done,” Martin said at the New York Comic-Con panel for Seven Kingdoms, sitting alongside the show’s stars and its showrunner, Ira Parker. “Ira and his amazing team have done an amazing job of adapting it. What you see is going to be very similar to what I wrote.”
Read on for everything to know about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Who’s in the cast?
Dexter Sol Ansell in ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’HBO
Peter Claffey leads the drama series as Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall, a common hedge knight with no royal blood in his background. Dunk’s unlikely traveling companion is Prince Aegon “Egg” Targaryen, a child prince of the Targaryen dynasty, played by Dexter Sol Ansell.
“It’s a massive role and a massive world to come into,” Claffey told the NYCC crowd. “The fact that we had such a good script and then having George’s iconic books to draw from all the time was a huge, huge help. It really kept the crippling terror and anxiety away!”
Ansell revealed he was 9 years old when production on the series started two years ago. “I realized, ‘I have to shave all my hair off!'” he said of what went through his mind after landing the role. “I was really excited for that. And then the first thing I did was have some scrambled eggs.”
To create Dunk and Egg’s onscreen bond, the two stars spent hours and hours at a nearby arcade playing multiple rounds of Mario Kart. The immersive sets also helped. “They built the entirety of Ashford in Northern Ireland,” said Claffey, referring to one of the story’s central locations. “The area was more populated by wasps than people. I think half the budget went to CGI-ing the wasps off my face!” (The reason for all those wasps? The fake blood used for the show was laced with sugar, which attracted the winged insects.)
The show’s supporting cast is rounded out by Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon, Bertie Carvel as Baelor Targaryen, Danny Webb as Ser Arlan of Pennytree, Sam Spruell as Maekar Targaryen, Shaun Thomas as Raymun Fossoway, Finn Bennett as Aerion Targaryen, Edward Ashley as Ser Steffon Fossoway, Tanzyn Crawford as Tanselle, Henry Ashton as Daeron Targaryen, Youssef Kerkour as Steely Pate, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Plummer, and Daniel Monks as Ser Manfred Dondarrion.
What’s the plot?
‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ logoHBO
HBO’s official logline reads: “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.”
Martin expanded on that synopsis at NYCC, teasing that the plot involves a big tournament that’s taking place at Ashford — one that Dunk intends to be part of. “I’ve always loved medieval tournaments,” the author said. “I said, ‘I want to do something that’s entirely set during a tournament.’ And I also gave Ira a challenge: ‘Let’s do the best jousting sequences that have ever been put on film.’ A modest little challenge for Ira and his group!”
It was a challenge that Parker eagerly accepted. “Jousting was a lot of fun,” he said. “We also did something hopefully no one has ever seen before, which is a jousting tournament at night — it just looks bad-ass.”
Watch the trailer
On Oct. 9, HBO released the first trailer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms at New York Comic-Con. The two-minute, 34-second video begins with Dunk explaining his backstory as a “good knight” charged with “defending the weak and the innocent.” Despite being billed as a drama series, there are several light-hearted moments in the clip, including when one townsperson orders Dunk to “move the f–k out of the way” because he’s not Baelor Targaryen.
Dunk and Egg’s unlikely companionship is on full display in the first trailer. When Dunk becomes offended by the youngster proclaiming he’s never heard of his knightly name before, Egg calmly responds that he has heard of all of the “good ones.” Egg later offers to be his squire and then cowers in fear when Dunk barks at him like a dog. The trailer ends with Lyonel Baratheon narrating, “In every man, there are many men, so be brave, be just, be tall.”
When does it take place?
How ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ fits in the ‘Game of Thrones’ timelineHBO
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place in the fictional land of Westeros about 100 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones. Meanwhile, House of the Dragon tells the story of the Targaryen dynasty about 200 years before GoT, sandwiching this new show directly between its predecessors.
“This story takes place between the two shows that everyone has seen and that everyone loves,” Parker said at NYCC. “It’s a time when the Targaryens don’t have their dragons anymore and are very much on the decline. Everybody starts asking, ‘Why are they still in charge?’ Maybe they feel they have to come to a tournament at Ashford meadow in this backwater of a place — to show up and shake hands and that kicks off our story in a very interesting way.”
Despite the different time period, Parker promised that Seven Kingdoms will be as unpredictable — and shocking — as Thrones and Dragon. “These novellas are so lovely and sweet and have so much hope, but they also have really brutal elements of this world that I think we’ve all come to love in Westeros. Following Dunk on this journey should be a really grounded, gritty feel; we’ve never had this perspective before of somebody who grew up in the slums of King’s Landing as an orphan and is just trying to make it. He’s out of his comfort zone, and hopefully that will resonate with our audience.”
Who’s behind the scenes?
Ira Parker, George R .R. Martin, Dexter Sol Ansell, Peter ClaffeyCraig Barritt/Getty Images for ReedPop
Parker and Martin are credited as creators of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms;.Parker also writes and co-writes all six episodes, with the other scribes being Aziza Barnes, Hiram Martinez, Annie Julia Wyman, and Ti Mikkel. Owen Harris and Sarah Adina Smith are the directors. The producers include Martin, Parker, Vince Gerardis, Owen Harris, Sarah Bradshaw, and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal.
Release date
The first of six half-hour episodes will air Jan. 18, 2026, on HBO and stream on HBO Max. New episodes will debut subsequent Sundays. And each of the panelists had a different episode to recommend to the NYCC crowd, with Ansell calling out Episode 3 as a personal favorite, while Claffey went with Episode 4. For his part, Martin offered two picks. “Episode 5 is very potent, because that’s the big action episode,” he teased. “It was very challenging to do and the way they settled on how to do it was superb.
“That being said, I’m even more impressed with the final episode, because the battle is over by then and the big twist has been revealed,” Martin continued. “It’s sort of an epilogue episode — sort of like ‘The Scouring of the Shire‘ which you’ll notice didn’t make the Lord of the Rings movies! But all my worries were relieved — I really liked what they did with Episode 6 showing the emotional resonance of the story and setting things up for the future of these characters.”
—Additional reporting by Ethan Alter
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