5 Issues We Discovered About The New Sport Of Thrones Prequel [NYCC]

Some franchises are harder to stop than others, and the world of Westeros may rank proper on the very high of the listing. Many a viewer swore off “Sport of Thrones” by the tip of its ultimate season, dismissing what was as soon as the most important and most talked-about sequence on the face of the Earth. Properly, not solely did “Home of the Dragon” show these offended phrases to be largely empty, bringing us proper again to this universe stuffed with a few of the richest world-building particulars of any property at the moment streaming. However “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the most recent spin-off/prequel sequence primarily based on creator George R.R. Martin’s work, is now set to make lightning strike thrice.

You could possibly virtually really feel the thrill within the air as Martin, co-creator and showrunner Ira Parks, and important leads Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell descended upon New York Comedian Con. The primary main occasion of the weeklong pop-culture celebration centered squarely on “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” packed to the brim with followers anxious for any and all data they might get their fingers on in New York Metropolis’s (solely barely humbler) model of Corridor H. I used to be lucky sufficient to be in attendance on behalf of /Movie as HBO unveiled the primary official footage from the upcoming sequence, however that was solely the opening salvo in what turned out to be a completely entertaining and considerably chaotic panel — highlighted by enjoyable detours resembling Claffey unintentionally stoking a “The Lord of the Rings” and “Sport of Thrones” rivalry (he is a giant fan of each, don’t fret), our collective amazement at youngster actor Ansell filming the sequence on the age of 9(!) and carrying on press obligations at 11, and the conspicuous absence of any speak in regards to the standing of Martin’s penultimate novel “The Winds of Winter.”

What they did discuss, nonetheless, may take up a number of articles full of absolutely the nerdiest of particulars. As a substitute, we have narrowed it right down to the 5 coolest takeaways we had from the NYCC panel. And now, our watch begins … once more.

Let’s simply say that there are a number of the explanation why it’s best to have “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” in your radar. Not solely is George R.R. Martin fully jazzed in regards to the newest adaptation of his work, which he reiterated on a number of events in the course of the panel. (He even went as far as to proclaim “The Hedge Knight,” the primary quick story in his “Dunk and Egg” novella and the idea for season 1 of this sequence, as “probably the greatest issues I’ve ever achieved.”) And it is not simply that this sequence incorporates an consideration to element that can find yourself successful over even probably the most hard-to-please member of the fanbase. Ser Duncan the Tall himself, actor Peter Claffey, praised the “badass” armor his character sports activities in the course of the course of the story and famous that it was a “carbon-copy” recreation of the illustrations from the novella. No, arguably probably the most thrilling purpose to tune in has to do with addressing one of many largest complaints about Martin’s unique e book.

In keeping with Martin himself, the very best a part of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” has to do with its give attention to the smallfolk of the dominion. When he revealed the preliminary e book in his “A Music of Ice and Fireplace” saga, titled “A Sport of Thrones,” Martin recalled that the harshest critique revolved round his option to comply with royal households, princes, and different highborn folks highly effective sufficient to sway kings and armies:

“One of many issues that one of many [critics] mentioned was that, ‘This is one other fantasy and we get to listen to extra about kingdoms and lords […] no one ever writes in regards to the frequent individuals,’ the smallfolk as I name them. And that resonated with me. We do take heed to a few of the critics, in the event that they know what they’re speaking about, and that’s true.”

So once we find yourself following figures resembling lowborn hedge knight Duncan the Tall and the diminutive, easy-to-overlook squire Egg, we’ll be witnessing one thing even “Sport of Thrones” could not pull off.

For these unfamiliar with the plot of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” the sequence finally ends up incorporating a major jousting event identified far and huge in Westeros as the Tourney at Ashford Meadow. When Ser Duncan the Tall enlists within the festivities, desperate to show his abilities as a real knight, neither he nor his loyal sidekick Egg may think about simply how their presence would change the course of historical past in Westeros. To do correct justice to this occasion, nonetheless, George R.R. Martin knew that the artistic crew had a troublesome problem on their fingers — and, naturally, he determined to boost the bar to the very best stage potential. 

Martin defined to the NYCC crowd that we have seen tournaments depicted in “Sport of Thrones” earlier than, however the one on this sequence wanted to take issues additional than we have ever seen earlier than. His earlier gold customary, 1952’s “Ivanhoe” starring Elizabeth Taylor and directed by Richard Thorpe, set a sky-high bar for Martin. However, as he defined:

“I set [showrunner Ira Parks and the creative team] a problem, which I believe Ira has delivered […] I mentioned, ‘Let’s do the very best jousting sequence that has ever been placed on movie. A modest little problem for Ira and his crew.”

By all accounts, it was mission achieved in that regard … however this was removed from the final of the present’s largest obstacles. In keeping with Pars, the trickiest facet to nail in “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” was the tone. As he described it, the supply materials leans onerous into being “beautiful and candy and [filled with] a lot hope,” but in addition incorporates “actually brutal parts of this world that we have all come to like in Westeros, the place something can occur.” Problem accepted.

With any spin-off, it is not essentially about recapturing what’s been achieved within the franchise earlier than — it is about what new parts it brings to the forefront now. The artistic crew behind “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” feels this strain acutely, however do not mistake that for shrinking from the problem. One key level emphasised many times in the course of the panel was that Ira Parks and his writing crew are desperate to forge their very own identification, separate and distinct from both “Sport of Thrones” or “Home of the Dragon.” Probably the most rapid approach to take action? The motion. In keeping with Parks, this manifested by way of taking how Martin wrote battle scenes and different tense moments within the novella and translating them to the display by way of Duncan’s viewpoint:

“Our guiding mild on this present was to comply with Duncan and let this character, by way of tone and POV within the mud and the grime, we wish the viewers to really feel what he feels. We need to be with him as carefully as potential. This is not motion sequences which might be lower up very quickly, it is not huge, sprawling “Sport of Thrones” that we have come to know and love. That is shut and that is intimate and that is brutal and that is horrible. That is what it might have been wish to be dealing with this.”

Even that wasn’t so simple as it might sound, nonetheless. Longtime readers of George R.R. Martin know that his “A Music of Ice and Fireplace” novels had been informed by way of strict point-of-view characters, with every chapter informed by way of the eyes of particular people with out ever leaving their perspective. Martin confronted an analogous resolution in “The Hedge Knight” over whether or not to modify forwards and backwards between his two important characters. As a substitute, he opted to stay with Ser Duncan all through all of the motion, and the HBO sequence adopted swimsuit. However viewers will discover a minimum of one acquainted facet carried over from “Sport of Thrones” — Martin confirmed the penultimate fifth episode will function the biggest battle of the season, persevering with the identical pattern first established within the dad or mum sequence.

As a lot as “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” has to stay of a chunk with the remainder of the universe established in “Sport of Thrones,” it would be a mistake to view the spin-off as nothing however mere spectacle. Duncan may not look like the deepest or most intricate character at first blush, however the would-be knight harbors all types of insecurities about his lot in life. Born within the slums of King’s Touchdown, the capital metropolis seen so prominently in each the unique sequence and “Home of the Dragon,” Duncan is continually attempting to place his lowborn origins behind him and ascend to the heights of a landed knight. However as Peter Claffey defined, that is a lot simpler mentioned than achieved:

“Clearly, he is attempting to be probably the most respectable, honorable knight he presumably could be. It is humorous, as a result of he tries to place away or extinguish that facet of him that he needs to overlook, that younger boy in Fleabottom simply attempting to outlive virtually like some half-human, half-dog roaming the streets. And I believe he is always attempting to extinguish that and overlook about that. But it surely serves him to know that that’s who he’s in sure conditions in direction of the tip of our story, and it serves him to have that persona, that never-give-up and fight-tooth-and-nail attribute. He will get to kind of settle for that — it is one huge, violent remedy session.”

To not be outdone, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” will apparently save a few of its deepest materials for final. In one of many uncommon moments of the creatives letting slip extra particular particulars from the tip of the season, George R.R. Martin hinted at a finale that can take a web page proper out of “The Lord of the Rings.” Evaluating it to “The Scouring of the Shire” chapter from the tip of J.R.R. Tolkien’s “The Return of the King,” Martin teased that the episode (his favourite of the season) will equally deal really feel like an epilogue, coping with the aftermath of a giant battle and the way it essentially modifications our characters … whereas additionally organising future seasons to come back.

Who says Westeros cannot be a little bit healthful once in a while? By its very nature, as a two-hander story between Duncan and Egg, “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” retains its central dynamic within the foreground of each episode. So it ought to come as no shock that this fictional relationship ended up mixing into actual life, as effectively. HBO enacted a rigorous casting course of to land on each Peter Claffey and relative newcomer Dexter Sol Ansell for the primary roles, even when they don’t seem to be totally good mirrors of their on-page counterparts. (George R.R. Martin joked in regards to the casting of “quick man” Claffey particularly, whose imposing top of 6 foot 6 nonetheless pales compared to the almost 7-foot-tall Duncan within the novellas.)

However even the hilarious bodily discrepancy between Claffey and Ansell solely ended up fueling their real-world bond. To decompress between grueling filming days, each on set and on location within the rain and dust of Northern Eire, the inseparable pair would hit up native cities to play all the things from arcade video games to “Mario Kart” — the latter of which Claffey good-naturedly claimed to have change into proficient in kicking Ansell’s you-know-what on many events. For Claffey, he had a primary row seat to watching truth and fiction blur collectively because the actors advanced alongside their characters:

“The idea that you just’re working with a 9-year-old is over inside half an hour of a day on set, and also you notice you are working with a 25-year-old in an 11-year-old’s physique. He is extremely mature and I am actually in awe […] I do suppose Dunk seems as much as Egg rather a lot, and appears to him for steerage. And I discover myself doing the very same factor with Dexter, for certain.”

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” premieres on HBO January 18, 2026.