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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: How HBO’s new Westeros series trades dragons for character
Set nearly a century before 'Game of Thrones', the Dunk and Egg adaptation explores honour and identity in a quieter, more human era of Westeros
- PUBLISHED: Sun 18 Jan 2026, 5:06 PM
- By:
- Husain Rizvi
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With A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, HBO is deliberately shifting gears. Set nearly a century before Game of Thrones — and after House of the Dragon — the series trades sprawling wars and dragonfire for something more intimate: a character-led journey through a Westeros still figuring out what it stands for.
Adapted from George R.R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, the show follows Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire Egg as they navigate honour and identity in a world where legacy is still being written. Speaking during a virtual roundtable with cast and creators, the team behind the series unpacked what shapes this new chapter of the franchise.
Translating Dunk’s inner world for television
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One of the biggest creative challenges, according to co-creator and showrunner Ira Parker, was translating the deeply interior nature of the source material to screen.
“The most difficult part was that so much of Dunk’s journey is interior — it’s all in his head — and when you’re making a TV show, you don’t have the luxury of internal monologue. We had to find creative ways to externalise that,” Parker explained.
“Peter Claffey did such brilliant work subtly conveying what might take three or four paragraphs on the page — Dunk’s internal anxiety — just through his face, his physicality, and the stiffness of a man navigating a world that’s unfamiliar to him.”
One such device was Dunk’s habit of talking to his horses, a solution that added the much-needed warmth without breaking the tone.
“Having Dunk talk to his horses became a characterful way to express some of that inner life, while also adding a bit of quirk to the show in a way that still felt real. I talk to my dog all the time — and he talks back to me in his dog voice.”
Still, restraint remained key.
“There was a moment where we considered having the horses talk back, and even though that’s my reality, it felt like a step too far. We tried a lot of versions, and hopefully we landed on the right balance.”
Playing power without playing status
For Bertie Carvel, who portrays Baelor Targaryen, power wasn’t something to perform, but something to protect internally.
"I don't think you can really play status. People give you status,” Carvel said. "The reality is that you’re standing in a muddy field, wearing heavy armour, unable to go to the toilet for hours, and your name is Bertie Carvel with very real-world problems."
He continued, “You have to appear noble, powerful, and authoritative, but if people don’t believe you, there’s nothing you can do. You can’t magically be high-status.”
Instead, Carvel focused on stillness and inner peace.
“The challenge is carrying something so still inside yourself that other people endow you with power. When they treat you like a king, you become one.”
Balancing the realities of filming with the illusion of authority proved to be its own challenge.
“A lot of filming is very unglamorous — lots of waiting around, physical discomfort — which is the opposite of how you want to feel when the camera rolls. You have to protect an inner space where those qualities still exist, so that they’re there when it matters.”
Humour without breaking Westeros
While A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is lighter in tone than its predecessors, the cast was keenly aware of preserving the integrity of the world.
Dexter Sol Ansell, who plays Egg, admitted the tonal balance wasn’t something that weighed heavily on him.
“I don’t think I was very conscious of that, to be honest. I’ve never watched Game of Thrones, so it didn’t really worry me."
Peter Claffey, on the other hand, approached the humour with precision, drawing from his comedic background.
“The humour was very carefully chosen. I come from a comedic background, so it was about using that muscle gently — never forcing comedy or pushing it too far,” he said. “We were always trying to serve Westeros — its seriousness, its drama, and the harshness of the world. That’s all still there, alongside these huge, very Game of Thrones-style moments.”
For Claffey, the humour emerges naturally from Dunk’s interactions with the world.
“The humour comes from small, human interactions — dealing with the smallfolk, or someone like Dunk, who isn’t the brightest, trying to buy goose eggs from someone who doesn’t speak his language. It becomes naturally funny without being forced.”
The goal, he said, was clear: “I’m proud that the show finds those lighter moments without corrupting the world of Westeros. That was never the plan.”
Authority in a world without dragons
With dragons gone and political structures still evolving, power in this era of Westeros looks different, something both Daniel Ings and Sam Spruell leaned into with their performances.
“I’m not sure Lyonel Baratheon really cares about power,” Ings said. “I think it bores him. Power is something other people give him through their subservience, but he’s not particularly interested in it.”
Instead, Lyonel is driven by something more primal. “What he is interested in is fighting. He’s an adrenaline junkie, really.”
Spruell, who plays Maekar Targaryen, was drawn to the insecurity beneath inherited authority.
“There’s a strange code of honour to Maekar, someone born into power who enjoys the trappings of it, but not the politics,” he said. “What interested me most were the cracks in his power rather than the overt expressions of it. Characters don’t feel powerful because of what they do, but because of how other people treat them.”
He pointed to Maekar’s position in the family hierarchy. “Maekar is second in line to the throne, constantly measuring himself against his brother. There’s a line about their mother loving Baelor more, and that kind of thing affects you fundamentally, regardless of status."
And yes, the look (blonde hair and facial) helped — but only to a point.
“I loved the blonde beard, it absolutely has power,” Spruell laughed. “As soon as I was in that get-up, I felt fantastic. But that’s just the beginning. After that, you still have to do the work as an actor.”
Rather than rewriting the world of Westeros, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms reframes it through several character lenses, making it less of a battleground, and more of a testing ground for honour and identity.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will air weekly episodes on Mondays in the UAE, available to stream on OSN+.
