'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' Will Change How 'Game of Thrones' Fans See Westeros - Sunburst Viral- Latest News on Celebrities, gossip, TV, music and movies

Summary

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ showrunner Ira Parker and stars Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell.
HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adapts George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, following Ser Duncan and young Egg across Westeros.
In this interview, the trio discuss the joys and challenges of bringing a new chatper of Westeros to screen, plans for the seasons ahead, and more.

The world of Westeros is endless. Although HBO’s Game of Thrones went off the air in 2019, there will always be ample opportunity to expand upon the lore of this immersive universe created by George R. R. Martin. House of the Dragon, a prequel to the show, has been an incredibly successful continuation of the fantasy world, and now, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, set a century before the events of Thrones, hopes to carry over this momentum.

This new adaptation of Martin’s writing, co-created by showrunner and executive producer Ira Parker (House of the Dragon), revolves around the Tales of Dunk and Egg novella series, with Peter Claffey (Small Things Like These) as Ser Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Egg. The upcoming series follows Duncan and his squire, Egg, wandering through Westeros from a bygone era, when the Targaryen dynasty ruled the Iron Throne and dragons were still remembered. For these two, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits await them. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms also stars Finn Bennett, Bertie Carvel, and Daniel Ings.

Parker, Claffey, and Sol Ansell took their new show to New York Comic Con 2025, where they spoke with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff to discuss adapting the Thrones universe. Leaving no stone unturned and staying thorough with the adaptation, it all clicked for Parker when he realized each season could represent one of Martin’s novellas. “I’ve put everything that I love about this series into these six episodes,” Parker told Nemiroff. There was plenty of pressure to satisfy the expectations of passionate Thrones fans, but Parker vowed to create something wholly inventive and personal while also adhering to the vision of past artists.

Check out the full conversation in the video above, or the transcript below, where Parker, Claffey, and Sol Ansell discuss A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Martin’s comments on the show and the casting of Sol Ansell as Egg, character ambiguities, and the bold decision to omit opening credits.

‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Will Be Three Seasons

Showrunner Ira Parker says the series will follow a novella a season.

Peter Claffey as Dunk riding a horse with two others following him in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms

PERRI NEMIROFF: Ira, you’re getting my first question. I want to start at the very beginning. At what point are you brought into the process of the making of this show? Are you working on House of the Dragon, and then someone comes to you and says, “What do you think about this next?”

IRA PARKER: No. I was working on various HBO projects. I got a text at, I think, 4:00 in the morning saying, “What do you think about Dunk and Egg?” from somebody at HBO. I spent the next week diving into everything in this section of Westeros, this history of Westeros, at which point, I think I knew probably more than George [R.R. Martin] did about this section of Westeros. I went and I had a call with HBO, and I was talking about it only to realize that I already had the job. They already wanted me to do it, and they didn’t like any of my ideas that I was pitching them for what I thought the series was going to be. They wanted a very straight, faithful adaptation, and that’s what we went ahead and did.

I love hearing about how ideas evolve. When they first brought this idea to you, what was the first way you envisioned this show turning out, and how does that compare to the finished product everyone’s going to see next year?

PARKER: Being, obviously, a huge Game of Thrones fan and a writer on House of the Dragon, I assumed that this was going to be 10 hour-long episodes every season. Obviously, these novellas are shorter. They are not the massive tomes that we get to enjoy for the other series, so I thought we were going to combine them, bring it all together, bring in elements of the Blackfyre Rebellion pretty immediately. When I heard that it was going to be six episodes and they wanted to do shorter half-hour episodes, I was like, “Great.” That means we can do one novella a season. That means we can start the way that we’re supposed to start and just follow Dunk in his journey into this world. We can be ground up. We can be slow. We can be intimate and just give people a little enjoyment, a little treat inside this world.

Dexter Sol Ansell, Peter Claffey, and Ira Parker at the media studio with Perri Nemiroff at NYCC 2025.

I’m always fascinated by someone’s experience managing this when they jump into such a popular franchise. When you’re making this show, what is the key to respecting why all of the pressure around it exists, but also not letting yourself be consumed by it and still making sure that you see your vision through with confidence?

PARKER: Anyone who’s come before me, everybody comes to this series with so much of their own enthusiasm. David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss] brought their own to that. Ryan Condal is obviously a super fan of this world. That’s all that I had to do was make sure that my love of this series, of George’s work, of Westeros, of these characters, came out in the writing and the production of this show. That was the only goal. If people like what we’ve done, that’s wonderful. I’ve put everything that I love about this series into these six episodes.

Bringing Dunk and Egg from Page to Screen

“I’ve got a responsibility here to try and really do justice to this character.”

"Dunk the Tall" looking back with a shield over his shoulder in the middle of busy camp grounds. — “Dunk the Tall” looking back with a shield over his shoulder in the middle of busy camp grounds.

For the two of you, leaning into the pressure of it all, it can be scary to play a character in this world and meet fan expectations, but I think what matters more than anything is that you, to your core, believe that you are these characters and you belong in this world. For each of you, what was the very first moment you had, either in prep or on set, when you knew, “I am meant to be Dunk, I am meant to be Egg, and I belong in Game of Thrones?”

DEXTER SOL ANSELL: This was probably the first time I met George R.R. Martin. This was an amazing thing. But actually, there was a funny story at the scene. We’d just filmed the tug of war scene, and I got thrown up in the air by Peter because we won it, and I hit my eye on his nose, and then my mom came running on, saying, “George is here! George is here!” And then she’s like, “Oh, are you okay? Are you okay?” So I go on, I meet George, and he told me that my acting and how I looked literally just jumped off the page from the book, and that felt like, “I am meant to be Egg. This is what I should do.”

PETER CLAFFEY: I suppose more like Dunk, my sort of confirmation of getting the role and stuff was just met with tremendous anxiety, panic, and just constant sweating and stomach problems. I’ve been a massive fan, obviously, of the original Game of Thrones series, so just to even be involved in the world or have the opportunity to be in the world in some shape or form was obviously amazing, but just tremendously terrifying, too. I know how much these books are loved and cherished, and awed over, and I was like, “I’ve got a responsibility here to try and really do justice to this character.” So, it was the most amount of preparation and work that I’ve done on anything that I’ve worked on before.

I think the beauty behind it, too, is that Ira translated the book to a screenplay so beautifully, as well. The fact that we had three novellas and a book to go back to literature on, that I knew, you’ve kind of got to balance the literary fans and the TV fans totally, and to have those two things, to have the script, and to have the book to be able to merge together and draw from all the time was such a huge help. Then obviously everybody in production. To come into such an animal like that, everybody, like Ira, both our directors, Owen [Harris] and Sarah [Adina Smith], were just the greatest, most supportive team as well. So, it was such a help.

It sounds like you did a significant amount of research, but of course, as we’ve already said, they’re shorter episodes. Is there any particular detail about the character that you found during that research that we don’t hear about or see directly in Season 1, but we can at least feel informing your performance?

CLAFFEY: There are a couple of things. Obviously, the story lends itself to the conflict that he has with the moral compass and values that he’s been hammered home with by Ser Arlan, and of course, that conflict on seeing all these knights that he’s really looked up to and held in high regard, and not finding them as full of the values and morals that he values himself. There’s all that conflict behind it, but I think the ambiguity that I felt, and maybe I might have been a slight idiot after reading the book, but just the ambiguity surrounding the fact as to whether or not Ser Arlan actually did knight him. When you’ve got that ambiguity behind things, it changed everything for me. I remember talking with Ira and talking with George, even briefly, about it, and it draws such a very different sort of characteristic from the actual character, as well. A lot of those little snippets and reading the book over and over again and finding little bits of information all just keep relaying back into your subconscious, so it really helped in that regard.

‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Stars Bonded at the Arcades

Claffey and Sol Ansell discuss their off-screen brotherhood.

Dexter Sol Ansell and Peter Claffey at the NYCC 2025 media studio for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

I’m going to zero in on the two of you as partners now, because it does feel like this show lives or dies based on your chemistry together. Again, based on what I’ve seen thus far, it feels like it’s the perfect pairing here, so can you each tell me something about the other as a scene partner that you really appreciated, and maybe even helped you deliver your own best work in the show?

CLAFFEY: Working with a nine-year-old, the thought that you’re going to work with a nine-year-old ends after the first hour or two, because you feel like you’re working with a 25-year-old. He’s just so mature, brilliant at his craft, and really cares about his craft a lot. I’m actually quite honored to be able to work with Dexter, because I know he’s going to have an amazing career after this. So, yeah, just to be able to bounce off each other in scenes and really get to know each other. It felt like it was never hard, any of our scenes together. It only got easier, and that’s such a quality that I appreciated so much.

SOL ANSELL: We kept building our relationship.

CLAFFEY: Totally. And that was from going to the arcades and stuff.

SOL ANSELL: The arcade is like our motivation. About Peter, the first time I was auditioning in Lucy Bevan’s office, I met loads of Dunks, and then I saw Peter, and I really wanted him to get the role. He was my 100% favorite, and I felt like we had a connection there. Then, when we started filming and he got the job, I was so happy. Because when I had the job, I was like, “Amazing, but now I need Peter to get the job.” And then I heard he got it, and it was amazing. Then we started filming, and we made this great relationship.

CLAFFEY: Absolutely. Thanks, brother. Appreciate it, for sure.

Why Won’t ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Have an Epic Title Sequence?

After Game of Thrones‘ iconic opening, a creative choice had to be made.

Dunk kneeling in the rain in a field at someone's grave. — Dunk kneeling in the rain in a field at someone’s grave.

Ira, I was reading another interview where you were talking about the opening title sequence, or the lack thereof. In particular, you mentioned that, “Not including one was probably the most stressful decision I made on this.” When I hear it described that way, I need to know the behind-the-scenes. Can you walk me through how that conversation went and if there was any back and forth on the matter?

PARKER: Look, sitting down on Sunday night to watch Game of Thrones and hearing probably the most iconic theme of all time come on and just take you out of your life and put you into this world where magic has existed, does exist within the walls of this world, is very helpful because then it allows you to tell more human stories. You’ve already been cued, “Here we are. We’re somewhere else. Okay, now you’re just going to go with this.”

Ultimately, we decided not to do one because we tried to be as character-forward in this as possible, and this is a knight of the Seven Kingdoms. It’s a story about Dunk. It’s a story about Dunk and Egg, Dunk as a human being, and what type of person is he? He’s simple, not flashy, and he just gets on with it. So, we decided to forgo the opening credits and to just get on with it. Hopefully, people don’t kill us for it.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres on January 18 on HBO Max.