Key Takeaways

• Show Duration: Ira Parker aims for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to exceed the length of Game of Thrones.
• Source Material: The first season adapts The Hedge Knight, with plans for multiple seasons based on George R.R. Martin’s novellas.
• Future Seasons: Parker envisions four to five seasons with Egg as a child and additional seasons featuring Egg as a prince.
• Critical Reception: The show has received a “Certified Fresh” rating of 95% on Rotten Tomatoes, indicating strong critical acclaim.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker plans for the show to last longer than Game of Thrones.

Season 1 of the Game of Thrones spinoff adapts The Hedge Knight, the first of George R.R. Martin’s three Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. Peter Claffey plays the titular hedge knight, Dunk, as he attempts to compete in a tourney with help from his new young squire, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has already been renewed for season 2 and will be based on the second novella, The Sworn Sword.

Since the source material consists of a trilogy, Esquire asked Parker if there will be three seasons. He explained that he plans to go far beyond that, as he wants to do between four and five seasons with Egg as a kid, followed by four or five seasons as Egg the Prince ten years later, and to then finish Dunk and Egg’s stories another decade later. This would take place over the course of Parker, Claffey, and Ansell’s lifetimes, although the showrunner admits that “I’m not sure anyone’s going to let me go for that.” Check out his comments below:

I hope George keeps writing these. The truth is—and I’ve pitched this to HBO with a couple very polite eye rolls—I want to do four or five now with Egg as a kid. Then, I want to come back in ten years and do four or five more seasons with Egg the Prince. And with real Dexter [Ansell] and real Peter, just the age that they are at that point. Then, we’ll come back ten years after that and do well, Egg the adult. So, it would be over the course of their lifetime. And mine too.

Since Game of Thrones ended with season 8, if Parker’s vision becomes a reality, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms would surpass the original series by a substantial amount. It would also last far longer than the franchise’s other television spinoff, House of the Dragon, which plans to end with season 4.

Parker acknowledges that more source material is needed for his plan, but he previously revealed that Martin shared 12 unpublished Dunk and Egg stories with him. He explained that “These stories take them all the way through their lives. Some of these are just a paragraph, but they give you a sense of where they’re going to go and the people who come back in and out of the story.”

Martin is also interested in continuing their journeys, telling The Hollywood Reporter that “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***ing head, I’ve got to get them down on paper. I began writing two at various points in the past year. One is set in Winterfell and one set in the Riverlands …” In the same interview, Martin emphasizes that he is well aware of The Winds of Winter being the priority. Fans have been waiting for the sixth installment in the main A Song of Ice and Fire book series since A Dance with Dragons was published in 2011.

As for whether there is enough interest in the new HBO spinoff lasting so long, critics’ reviews for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms have been stellar, leading to a “Certified Fresh” 95% score on Rotten Tomatoes. This is higher than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon season 1, both of which have 90% Tomatometer scores. Given the 63% Popcornmeter score, though, audiences are more divided on the Dunk and Egg adaptation. At the same time, the viewership is promising for the show’s future, with the first episode having the third-highest premiere in HBO Max history, only behind House of the Dragon seasons 1 and 2.