The release of the next Game of Thrones spinoff series — A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — is just a few months away, and HBO has dropped the first poster for the series. It has also been confirmed that the spinoff will debut on HBO Max in January, which HBO chief Casey Bloys mentioned just last month.
Based on the Dunk and Egg novellas by George R.R. Martin, the series takes place nearly a hundred years before the events of Game of Thrones. It follows Dunk (Peter Claffey), a squire who takes on the mantle of Ser Duncan the Tall when he takes the armour of a dead knight. Dunk is followed by Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a young boy who serves as his squire and accompanies him on his misadventures. The Dunk and Egg tales have a considerably lighter tone while keeping the same style as the Game of Thrones series. Nothing has been confirmed yet, but HBO is reportedly considering a two-season renewal.
Another way in which the series will differ from Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon is that it won’t include a title sequence. Instead, a simple title card will introduce each episode.
“All decisions came down to Dunk, trying to channel the type of person he is into every aspect of this show, even the title sequence,” A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms co-creator Ira Parker told Entertainment Weekly. “The title sequences on the original [Game of Thrones] and House of Dragon are big and epic and incredible. Ramin Djawadi’s score is orchestral and large and beautiful. That’s not really Dunk’s M.O. He’s plain and he’s simple and he’s to-the-point. He doesn’t have a lot of flash to him.“
The series takes place after the events of House of the Dragon, and the world is a far less magical place. It’s been 50 years since the death of the last dragon, which Parker noted “wasn’t even much of a dragon” as it was a “gnarled thing that couldn’t even fly.” And if a dragon can’t fly, it’s basically just a “fancy lizard.“
“Nobody’s thinking about magic,” Parker added. “This could basically be 14th century Britain. This is hard nose, grind it out, gritty, medieval knights, cold with a really light, hopeful touch. It’s a wonderful place to be. We are ground up in this series, we are starting right at the bottom. We’re not with the lords and ladies, the kings and queens.“
There was a time when Game of Thrones completely ruled the TV landscape, but that disastrous final season torched a lot of the goodwill HBO had built up. Sure, the network’s still mining Westeros with spinoffs like House of the Dragon, but if we’re being honest, it doesn’t quite have that “drop-everything-and-watch” magic the original once did.
