UPDATED 4/12, 8:05 p.m. ET: Amid its many HBO Max-related reveals, Warner Bros. Discovery announced Wednesday that a Game of Thrones prequel titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight has been given a series order.
A century before @GameofThrones, there was Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg. Executive produced by George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker, Ryan Condal, and Vince Gerardis, A Knight of the #SevenKingdoms: The Hedge Knight has received a straight to series order. #StreamOnMax
Per Variety, it’s based on the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas by George R.R. Martin, the series takes place 100 years prior to the events of Game of Thrones, and follows “two unlikely heroes” in Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk), and Aegon V Targaryen (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,” the official logline reads.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight will be written and executive produced by Martin along with Ira Parker, who served as a co-executive producer on Season 1 of House of the Dragon. Also acting as EPs are House showrunner Ryan Condal and Thrones/HotD veteran Vince Gerardis.
See original story below.
HBO remaining in the long-term Game of Thrones business is no surprise, but another prequel based on the same source material as House of the Dragon might not have been on your Westerosi bingo card.
Variety is reporting that a spinoff is being mulled surrounding the initial Targaryen conquest of the nation fans have become intimately familiar with across the course of two TV series and George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire books. A show about Aegon I Targaryen riding Balerion the Black Dread over from Dragonstone alongside his “sister-wives” and fellow dragon-riders Visenya and Rhaenys is being “actively discussed” in the “very early stages,” the magazine writes, citing sources.
Aegon’s Conquest—so foundational that years in Westeros are dated AC (After the Conquest) or BC (Before the Conquest)—is recounted in detail at the outset of GRRM’s Fire and Blood. The 2018 tome goes on to cover the events of House of the Dragon (i.e. the Targaryen civil war known as the Dance of the Dragons) and the family’s entire history to the end of its dynasty, which fell two decades prior to Game of Thrones.
Making this potential spinoff more notable is the possibility, per Variety, of a movie tie-in where “HBO and Warner Bros. would produce a feature film that would then lead into the potential series, though plans remain in flux at present.”
No writers are attached, although HBO is evidently “keen to move forward and get it into development.”
Last year’s debut season of House of the Dragon was the first Thrones spinoff to hit screens since the flagship property wrapped in 2019, but many, many more have been considered. These include a Jon Snow follow-up set after the events of GoT, an adaptation of Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg prequel novellas, and multiple animated series. HBO’s first attempt at a Thrones follow-up—yet another prequel, starring Naomi Watts and rumored to have been called The Long Night—was nixed during the pilot stage.
