Is Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Based On A Book?

The Game of Thrones universe is getting a little bigger — not with more dragons or royal power plays, but with the unlikely friendship between a knight and his young apprentice.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (out Jan. 18) is a new Game of Thrones show based on books by George R. R. Martin. But unlike the hefty tomes that served as the source material for the franchise’s flagship series, the latest spinoff pulls instead from Martin’s series of novellas: The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword, and The Mystery Knight.

They revolve around the adventures of a knight named Ser Duncan the Tall (or Dunk) and his squire, Aegon V Targaryen (aka Egg), who would go on to become Daenerys Targaryen’s great-grandfather.

While that bloodline is certainly a fun fact for Thrones fans, this series is a lot less focused on royal drama than you might have come to expect. Rather, it’s primarily set around a jousting tournament. As teased in its Season 1 poster, Seven Kingdoms is literally and tonally “a journey far from the throne.”

As Martin (also co-creator and executive producer) recently told The Hollywood Reporter, HBO was excited about the prospect of a show that lets them “get the budget a little under control” compared to, say, House of the Dragon, which returns this summer.

“This doesn’t have any dragons or big battles,” he said. “It has a field and a lot of tents and some horses.”

In the same interview, Martin also revealed that his relationship with Dragon boss Ryan Condal is “abysmal,” but he was effusive in his praise for Seven Kingdoms. “It turned out very well, and I’m very happy with Season 1. The casting was a home run,” he said. (Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell play Dunk and Egg, respectively.)

Looking Ahead

Early reviews praised Seven Kingdoms’ crowd-pleasing appeal — as NPR put it, it’s “Game of Thrones for the haters” — and noted positive similarities to what The Mandalorian did for Star Wars. HBO is feeling pretty good about it, too: Seven Kingdoms has been renewed for a second season, which will premiere next year.

Martin, for his part, hopes to take it even further. “The big issue is that I have only written three novellas, and I have a lot more stories about Dunk and Egg in my f*cking head,” he told THR.