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Movies & TV

16th Apr 2023

George R. R. Martin reveals details of new Game of Thrones spinoff series

Simon Kelly

George R. R. Martin reveals details of new Game of Thrones series

Dunk and Egg are coming to HBO.

Since the success of House of the Dragon, fans are once again excited about the many Game of Thrones spinoffs coming our way over the next few years.

This week, HBO announced yet another new series, titled A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, which will be penned by Game of Thrones author, George R. R. Martin.

The show will take place a century prior to the original series and will follow “A young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg,” on their journeys through Westeros.

“Set in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.”

Martin himself has now revealed further details about the show, which has long been in the pipeline as an upcoming project.

In his “Not a Blog” blog, the 74-year-old said:

“HBO has given us a greenlight to film for a full season (not just a pilot), most likely of six episodes… though that is not set in stone, and won’t be until considerably later in the process. To date I have written and published three novellas about Dunk & Egg — ‘The Hedge Knight,’ ‘The Sworn Sword,’ and ‘The Mystery Knight,’ each of them initially published independently in various anthologies before being collected together in A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS.”

Martin went on to say that the first series of the upcoming project will be an adaptation of the first of the three novellas (which were published in 1998, 2003, and 2010) and that the pilot script is already written by House of the Dragon writer Ira Parker.

Martin himself will executive produce alongside Parker, House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal and Game of Thrones alum Vince Gerardis.

Upcoming writing projects

Fans of the books might be slightly anxious by what else Martin had to say about his own upcoming writing projects. He explained that if all of the Dunk and Egg books get adapted into television – which is the plan – then he’ll have to write a lot more follow-ups.

“I just need to finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, and then do either A DREAM OF SPRING or volume two of FIRE & BLOOD, and slip in a new Dunk & Egg between each of those in my copious spare time… and that will keep me ahead of Ira and his merry crew… for a few more years.”

Famously, the Game of Thrones series overtook its source material and freewheeled to a rather disappointing ending without any books to base themselves off. Fans will be hoping that Martin will be able to keep ahead of writers this time around.

However, given the incredible volume of work he now has at hand, and his notoriously leisurely writing pace, we have a feeling that’s not going to happen.

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