Peter Claffey in “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms.”
Steffan Hill/HBO
Seconds after debuting the first official teaser trailer for A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms at New York Comic Con on Thursday, co-creator and executive producer George R.R. Martin, co-creator and showrunner Ira Parker and stars Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell stepped onto the Empire Stage to thunderous applause from hundreds of fans.
Over the course of nearly an hour, the cast and crew regaled attendees with stories from the set of the six-episode show, anecdotes about the audition process, teases about the jousting sequences and their thoughts on what makes A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms different from Game Of Thrones and its existing prequel series, House Of The Dragon.
For starters, the half-hour drama series centers on a knight named Ser Duncan the Tall (Claffey) and his diminutive squire, Egg (Ansell). It’s based on The Hedge Knight, the first of three novellas Martin wrote about Dunk and Egg, and has a decidedly different tone than the other Westeros-set shows.
Chronologically, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms is set a century before Game Of Thrones, and takes place between House of the Dragon and Game Of Thrones. And in this series, the Targaryens don’t have their dragons.
“These novellas are so lovely and sweet and they 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, where anything can happen,” Parker explained. “There is a level of unpredictability that resonates with people because that’s just how your life is.”
Dexter Sol Ansell as Egg in “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms.”
HBO
The showrunner added that Dunk being the center of the narrative lends itself to a more “grounded” and “gritty” feel.
“We’ve never had this perspective before of somebody who grew up in the slums of King’s Landing as an orphan who came up in this world, didn’t have a name, didn’t have an inheritance, didn’t have any money, doesn’t have the best training in the whole world and he’s just trying to make it trying go out and do something hard that he’s never done before,” Parker said. “He’s out of his comfort zone. And hopefully a lot of that will resonate with a lot of our audience.”
Martin said that writing the novella came easily to him, and he considers it “one of the best things I’ve ever done.” He also promised that the TV show adaptation is similar to the novella and doesn’t veer off the source material.
Peter Claffey in “A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms.”
Steffan Hill/HBO
Claffey also praised his young costar, who was 9 when they filmed the show and is now 11 years old. The actor joked that having Ansell as a costar is like “working with a 25-year-old in an 11-year-old’s body.”
“He’s just incredibly mature and I’m really in awe of him,” Claffey said. “Even looking back at who I was when I was 9, 10 and 11, I could not be able to come out here and do the things that I’ve seen Dexter do, the performances that Dexter has done.”
And in some ways, Claffey and Ansell’s real-life dynamic feels reflective of their characters.
“I do think Dunk looks up to Egg a lot and looks to him for guidance. And I find myself doing the exact same thing with Dexter, for sure,” Claffey said.
As for which episode they’re most excited for fans to see, Parker had a cheeky answer.
“Episode six, because then you will have watched the entire show,” he said.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms debuts on Sunday, January 18 at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO and will be available to stream on HBO Max.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/oliviasingh/2025/10/09/a-knight-of-the-seven-kingdoms-cast-teases-what-to-expect-from-game-of-thrones-prequel-series/
