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The world of Westeros continues to broaden within the model new spin-off sequence A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, set 100 years between Recreation of Thrones and Home of the Dragon…
Irish actor Peter Claffey has gigantic shoulders – and it is lucky that he does, as HBO’s destiny within the hotly contested streaming wars could relaxation on them.
The Vikings: Valhalla star and former rugby participant, 29, is Dunk within the new Westeros TV story, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The sequence takes its title from a trilogy of George RR Martin novellas that grew out of the primary books of A Tune of Ice and Fireplace.
Solely, in contrast to Recreation of Thrones and Home of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms begins – and stays – distant from the lords and castles of the opposite two exhibits, in a time of relative peace.
Dunk is a homeless knight pressured to wander the countryside alone after the demise of his mentor, Ser Arlan. With solely the garments on his again (and three horses), Dunk plans to enter a knight’s match within the close by city of Ashford, believing he has nothing to lose.
The acquainted strings from Ramin Djawadi’s Recreation of Thrones theme music finish, the hairs in your arms stand in anticipation of the journey forward, and you start to visualise Dunk taking down evil enemies, rising from the fringes of Westerosi society to the highest.
However then the Recreation of Thrones music involves a cease and we see Dunk violently defecating behind a tree. Sure. In case that is too delicate, issues are totally different on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. At the least initially.
We’re quickly launched to Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), a 10-year-old whose jokes, naive eyes and glossy bald head shortly soften Dunk’s coronary heart and create a lighter tone than we’re used to on this world. Not so mild that the present feels unusual, however sufficient to offer distinction.
Dunk and Egg’s dynamic is hardly unique – it is Lone Wolf and Cub or, barely nearer to house, Sandor Clegane and Arya Stark – however the chemistry of their chalk-and-cheese buddy cop is shortly infectious. Each emotional blow from their deeper connection is earned.
Claffey performs Dunk as if weighed down by a deep absence of function and a unhappiness he cannot put his finger on – his shoulders could also be robust, however his coronary heart beats with reluctant tenderness. Ansell’s cute line readings might be hit and miss, however he nonetheless communicates Egg’s mixture of know-it-all confidence and childlike innocence. They match.
Some declare that HBO is beginning to desperately seek for Recreation of Thrones content material with A Knight of the Seven Kingdom. The streaming wars require recognizable IP for ammunition, however there’s a threat of name fatigue right here.
Moreover, Dunk and Egg’s tales are considerably complementary and disconnected from what TV audiences beforehand demanded from this world. An absence of judicial intrigue and dragons can deter swing voters.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is not precisely probably the most distinctive thought both. Its success will rely on whether or not potential viewers are prepared to forgive its unoriginality within the broader context of TV in an effort to expertise its refreshing perspective on the world of Westeros.
As a result of for individuals who are impressionable, this sequence works laborious to justify itself. The outcomes are rewarding. The lighter environment established early on stays – 35-minute episodes assist – however is slowly and appropriately laden because the stakes rise.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Key Particulars
Makers
Ira Parker and George RR Martin
Writers
Ira Parker, Aziza Barnes, Annie Julia Wyman, Ti Mikkel
Type
Peter Claffey, Dextor Sol Ansell, Finn Bennett, Bertie Carvel, Tanzyn Crawford, Daniel Ings, Sam Spruell
Launch date
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is accessible on Sky Atlantic and NowTV from January 18
By staying in Ashford the whole time, it confidently performs a seemingly easy trick that Recreation of Thrones and Home of the Dragon solely sometimes make use of: the digicam strikes down the social hierarchy and turns its gaze upward.
Recreation of Thrones and Home of the Dragon are each socially aware, however they’re tales informed from the backs of dragons and nice horses – excessive above the streets in castles, the place they observe extraordinary individuals from above. They include the aristocracy, despotic rulers, royal banquets and lavish events.
Conversely, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms consists of lonely troopers, innkeepers, second sons, blacksmiths, prostitutes, and steady boys, who sleep beneath the celebs (or beneath timber), battle for the little they possess, and are all the time prone to being trampled by stated horses, dragons, and rulers.
It is also refreshing to look at this present’s dialogue in comparison with Home of the Dragon’s, which developed a bent to change into too formulaic and stuffy for its personal good throughout its in any other case stable second season. It is nice to listen to characters on this world speaking like actual beer drinkers once more.
We encounter lords and divine rightists bearing the crests of royal homes we acknowledge – a spoiled Targaryen prince, a sort however finally smug Baratheon, a pair of Kingsguard – and it is throughout these interactions that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms lets its large questions filter by.
That is, amongst different issues, a present concerning the divide between those that are given the entire world by beginning and those that need to work twice as laborious to assert only a small piece of it.
Pompous wealthy princes enter Ashford with out a lot care. In the meantime, Dunk should belief that doubtlessly lethal gents will take pity on him. The lives and destinies of the oppressed majority of Westeros are utterly managed by a choose group of risky feudalists. Even with a lighter tone, the risk is fixed.
One humorous look, one phrase spoken out of flip, one misunderstood joke, and that could possibly be it: a dangling, a beheading or, as a poor farmer discovers, a really damaged finger.
The script raises doubts not solely concerning the nature of destiny, however whether or not destiny may even exist for these with out it. Maybe it is just one thing granted to these on the lucky aspect of the category divide.
Pronunciation
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms confidently expands the world of Westeros by steering away from the lords and castles of Recreation of Thrones and Home of the Dragon.
It pulls again the curtain on these decrease down the meals chain of the Seven Kingdoms, focusing totally on those that take it upon themselves to guard the harmless on this brutal feudal world.
It’s also a present about how poverty can significantly injury the psyche of its victims. Was your cosmically random hand of playing cards predestined? Is the world not yours to see or expertise? Is a depressing demise in an alley in King’s Nation all you are good for? Why would the gods select you over others?
The story of Dunk – and different characters on this present who sit on the underside rung of the Westerosi ladder – is one among making an attempt to interrupt that cycle. His purpose is to present some hope to youngsters like Egg, who face the identical life as Dunk if he would not intervene.
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Egg’s bald, ten-year-old head has a secular clarification, however the mere sight of a kid’s cranium uncovered to the Westerosi parts – and all of the horrors that entails – is sufficient to make you shudder in worry. He is even nicknamed Egg, for goodness sake. I do not suppose the present might purpose extra purple arrows on the metaphor if it tried.
Dunk’s gigantic shoulders are robust (maybe robust sufficient to hold the way forward for this franchise), however bald 10-year-old heads – and the lives of the extraordinary individuals of Westeros – are extremely fragile. It’s as much as these with broad shoulders and tender hearts to guard them, and that’s exactly the soul of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is accessible on Sky Atlantic and NowTV from January 18.
This text was initially printed on January 13, 2026.
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