HBO’s next Game of Thrones spinoff may bring back one of the show’s biggest villains. Thus far, the franchise has largely avoided having returning characters, at least in terms of them making any sort of true appearance. The closest House of the Dragon got was Daemon Targaryen’s visions in the Season 2 finale, wherein he saw a White Walker, Brynden Rivers/The Three-Eyed Raven, and Daenerys Targaryen. The timeline, of course, makes bigger crossovers largely impossible – unless someone like Melisandre decides to turn up – but the next show doesn’t quite have that same issue.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms begins around 90 years before Game of Thrones. While that’s still a considerable amount of time, the books it is based on, George R.R. Martin’s The Tales of Dunk and Egg, do feature some familiar faces, either with brief appearances or mentions in the text. One of them is none other than one of the architects of Game of Thrones‘ Red Wedding, Walder Frey. He appears as a child at a wedding in the third novella, The Mystery Knight. Speaking with Polygon, showrunner Ira Parker discussed an idea for bringing him to the series:
“My favorite is, and look, it’s not until the third book, but there’s a baby Walder Frey. I have this, hopefully, really funny idea that people are probably gonna kill me for. But this idea that something’s happening, like there’s a runaway horse cart, and this baby’s about to be killed, and Dunk intervenes and saves baby Walder Frey. We don’t ever make a thing of it. It just happens, and we’re on with the story. That’s sort of the closest we get to it in the three novels that have been written.”
Which Other Game of Thrones Characters Could Appear in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
The idea of young Walder Frey appearing in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a fun one, and would carry a sense of cruel irony, with Dunk, a hero, saving the life of someone who’d become one of the worst people in Westeros (in the book, Dunk finds him annoying and unpleasant even as a kid). It’d be an easy and largely organic connection to make to the parent show, given he already appears in the books, but isn’t the only familiar character who could appear in the prequel.
One of the most obvious choices would be Aemon Targaryen, better known to viewers as Maester Aemon. Long before he was serving the Night’s Watch, Aemon was part of the Targaryen family that will make up a decent chunk of A Knight of the Seven Kingdom‘s story. Although even then he’s a little removed from things, he is mentioned throughout the books, and so having him actually appear on screen for a cameo would be pretty simple to work in.
Bloodraven, or Brynden Rivers, is another we can expect to appear, but again perhaps not until Season 3 (assuming it happens). He also makes an actual on-page appearance, and so should turn up on-screen as well, with him serving as Hand of the King at that point in the story. Another character we could see include Old Nan, who is said to have met Dunk at Winterfell. Many others feature in Dunk and Egg’s lives, but as part of the wider Westeros history rather than directly in the novellas Martin has written, such as Olenna Tyrell, Aerys II Targaryen (aka the Mad King), Rhaegar Targaryen, and Tywin Lannister, so it’d need to run for a lot of seasons to include any of them. Too many connections may risk distracting from the story at hand, but things like Walder would be the right approach.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will premiere on HBO and HBO Max on January 18th, 2026. Game of Thrones is available to stream on HBO Max.
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