HBO is headed back to Westeros once again. The network revealed the first trailer for its second Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, at New York’s Comic Con on Thursday, revealing the Targaryen colors, jousting and plenty of chainmail.
According to the logline, the series, based on a series of novellas by the Game of Thrones author George RR Martin, will follow “two unlikely heroes” who wandered Westeros: a “young, naive but courageous knight” named Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall, played by Peter Claffey, and his “diminutive squire” Egg, played by Dexter Sol Ansell.
The events – seemingly a lot of knight training, jousting and at least one battle – take place during “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”.
In classic Thrones fashion, the trailer presents a medieval world of knights, kings, squires, peasants, dragons and, if Egg is to be believed, at least one magical comet. The series also stars Finn Bennett as Prince Aerion Targaryen, Bertie Carvel as Prince Baelor Targaryen, Sam Spruell as Prince Maekar Targaryen, Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon and Tanzyn Crawford as Tanselle, a Dornish puppeteer.
It takes place 100 years before the events of Game of Thrones, which wrapped after seven seasons in 2019, and 72 years after the events of House of the Dragon, HBO’s first prequel series that premiered in 2022. The third and penultimate season of House of the Dragon, which has drawn mixed reviews from audiences, is scheduled for release in 2026.
Martin, an executive producer and writer on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, wrote on his blog that the new series will be “much shorter” than Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, “with a much different tone”. (To wit, unlike House of the Dragon, the new trailer features a couple of jokes.) He added that in terms of world-building and surprises, “it’s still Westeros, so no one is truly safe.”
At New York Comic Con, showrunner Ira Parker told fans that “our guiding light on this show was to follow Dunk in terms of tone and point of view and the mud and the dirt. We wanted the audience to feel what he feels. We want to be with him as closely as possible.
“It’s not big, sprawling Game of Thrones that we’ve come to know and love; it’s close and it’s hard,” he added, according to Deadline. “We kept flooding this field with mud and dirt and shit … the pain, the agony, the irritation, the closeness; as soon as you put on a mask, it changes the way you breathe. We’ re going to feel every grit of that.”
Parker has also assured that this series will be less focused on fantastical elements than prior shows. “Nobody’s thinking about magic,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “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,” he added. “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.”
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will premiere in January on HBO and HBO Max.
