Back in HBO, HBO officially announced that it was making a Game of Thrones spinoff based on George R.R. Martin’s Dune and Egg novellas, the first three of which are collected in the book A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The show is currently called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Casting calls were reportedly sent out in October. Now that the writers and actors strikes are over, filming is scheduled to commence this spring, and a premiere date in 2025 is looking like a decent bet.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will take place 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones. The story follows Ser Duncan the Tall and his 10-year-old squire Egg, who is secretly a Targaryen prince named Aegon (of course it’s Aegon). At this point in Westerosi history, dragons are gone but the Targaryen dynasty is still relatively strong. Egg has many Targaryen family members who we’ll get to know.
Other than Egg, here is every Targaryen that could possibly appear in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.
King Daeron II Targaryen
— Meep III (@BastardChjld) October 10, 2023
• Also known as Daeron the Good
•Reigned from 184 AC - 209 AC
• He famously fought in the first of many Blackfyre rebellions against his half brother, Daemon Blackfyre. He married Myriah Martell of Dorne
• Succeeded by his second son, Aerys pic.twitter.com/aSMvS6ADmp
Daeron II Targaryen
In the first Dunk and Egg novella, called The Hedge Knight, begins, the king of Westeros is Egg’s grandfather Daeron II. Many of the notable events in Daeron’s rule have already happened at this point. This story begins near the end of his 25-year reign. But the show will likely be full of references to his feats as King, such as bringing Dorne into the Seven Kingdoms, putting down the first Blackfyre rebellion and fostering a long era of peace.
Daeron and his wife Myriah Martell had four children together. Their marriage fully united Dorne with the rest of the realm, although the desert region continued to enjoy special perks the other kingdoms didn’t. Daeron earned the nickname “The Good” for his kind-hearted nature and wisdom he gained through reading books and hanging out with maesters. At the age of 55, Daeron succumbed to a plague called the Great Spring Sickness which killed tens of thousands in Westeros.
Daeron doesn’t explicitly show up in the Dunk and Egg novellas, but the show will likely expand upon the source material significantly, especially with Martin consulting on the scripts. I think seeing Daeron in the flesh would add to the narrative and show that not every Targaryen monarch is a bloodthirsty madman.