It looks like the second Game of Thrones spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Hedge Knight, which is based on George R.R. Martin’s Dunk & Egg novellas, is finally getting going as HBO has announced the casting of Peter Claffey as Ser Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell as his much smaller squire Egg.
The series has been in the works for a while, with reports of it popping up almost as soon as Game of Thrones ended, but production was slow to pick up. However, with the success of House of the Dragon, HBO and Warner Bros. are clearly happy to turn this franchise into a fantasy universe. The show is going to go into production sometime later this year so that it can possibly premiere in 2025, though no firm release date has been revealed.
The series is another prequel and takes place about 100 years before Game of Thrones, putting it 100 years after House of the Dragon. Unlike those two shows, however, Hedge Knight isn’t about Westeros politics and the crown but is instead based on the adventures of the famous knight Dunk (Calffey) and his squire Egg (Ansell) as they wander the land committing acts of heroism. The novellas that the show is based on are a bit lighter in fare than the still unfinished A Song of Ice and Fire books, and it seems the TV show will be much the same.
We don’t know exactly how closely the tales of Dunk and Egg in Hedge Knight will hew to the novellas, but if Game of Thrones is any indication, things could go pretty far off course. At the moment, it’s slated to run for three seasons. Both Claffey and Ansell are well cast for the parts in that one is tall and one is short, but neither are well-known names as the series appears to be looking to not obscure itself with famous actors, leaving the heavy hitters to House of the Dragon.
