For eight seasons, Game of Thrones filmed all over the world, but its home base was always in Titanic Studios in Belfast, Northern Ireland. That’s where most of the indoor sets were built, including a huge King’s Landing set that the crew exploded for Daenerys Targaryen’s dive-bombing run in season 8. For any Game of Thrones fan, Titanic Studios is a site worth seeing.
For the prequel series House of the Dragon, HBO relocated the center of operations to Leavesden Studios in England, not far from London. But HBO has another prequel in the hopper: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, based on George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas about a knight (Dunk) and his squire (Egg) wandering around Westeros righting wrongs and having adventures. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms may return to Northern Ireland, putting it in a. position to take advantage of the filmmaking infrastructure that HBO laid there with Game of Thrones.
This news comes from Redanian Intelligence, which noticed that line producer Lisa Byrne — who worked on seasons 3 through 8 of Game of Thrones — updated her LinkedIn page to include work on “Dunk and Egg.” She lists the job as taking place in Northern Ireland. So the Game of Thrones franchise could be going back home.
HBO wants to start shooting next Game of Thrones prequel show in the spring of 2024
The Hedge Knight is the title of the first novella in Martin’s series. The other two are The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight. All three are compiled in a book called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Hence, the title of the show is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. I’m kind of hoping they shave that down before release; it’s a little long.
In any case, HBO CEO Casey Bloys said that they’re hoping to start shooting A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms in the spring of next year. Now that both the Hollywood writers and actors strikes are over, the way forward is more clear.
The second season of House of the Dragon is set to premiere in the summer of 2024. In the best With A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms filming at the same time as House of the Dragon is airing, the first season of the new show could air between new seasons of House of the Dragon, meaning we’ll have at least one new season of a Game of Thrones show to watch every year.
That’s the best case scenario. In the worst case scenario, HBO is rushing to make A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms for the sake of building out the Game of Thrones Cinematic Universe at the potential price of quality and consistency, but right now I don’t think there’s any reason to assume the worst. I’m more excited than nervous. How about you?
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