Today's a thrilling day in the realm of Westeros, because we finally got our first teaser trailer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the upcoming Game of Thrones prequel series based on George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. To mark the occasion, showrunner Ira Parker and author George R.R. Martin took to New York Comic Con along with series stars Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell to talk up the series. There were a lot of cool tidbits, and we're going to be working through them for a couple of days. Let's start with a fun one.
The Tales of Dunk and Egg take place roughly 100 years before Game of Thrones and 100 years after House of the Dragon, and follow the stalwart knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his diminutive squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) as they go on adventures. The tone is much lighter, which should be a nice change of pace considering how tragic House of the Dragon is going to get before the end.
By this point in Westeros' history, the dragons have all died out. Despite that, the trailer gives us a glimpse as a gorgeous new Targaryen banner...which just so happens to be more anatomically correct than the banners on House of the Dragon, when so many dragons ruled the skies they were a common sight in the Seven Kingdoms.
The new banner of House Targaryen in HBO’s ‘A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS’ 🐉 pic.twitter.com/NHMyORhfXg
— westerosies (@westerosies) October 9, 2025
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has dragon banners with the correct number of legs
Believe it or not, the incorrect banners in House of the Dragon were actually a point of friction with Martin, who took to his Not A Blog last year to gripe about the show's decision to carry over the wrong dragon banners from the latter half of Game of Thrones' run.
"I wanted my dragons to be as real and believable as such a creature could ever be," Martin wrote at the time. "I designed my dragons with a lot of care. They fly and breathe fire, yes, those traits seemed essential to me. They have two legs (not four, never four) and two wings. LARGE wings. A lot of fantasy dragons have these itty bitty wings that would never get such a creature off the ground. And only two legs; the wings are the forelegs. Four-legged dragons exist only in heraldry. No animal that has ever lived on Earth has six limbs. Birds have two legs and two wings, bats the same, ditto pteranodons and other flying dinosaurs, etc."
The problems with the dragon designs in both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon came down to heraldry, and the artistic license that often went with it. "[M]edieval heralds were not exactly renowned for their grasp of zoology, even for real world animals. Just take a look at what they thought a seahorse looked like," Martin joked. "Why would any Westerosi ever put four legs on a dragon, when they could look at the real thing and could [count] their limbs?"
"A couple years on, HOUSE OF THE DRAGON decided the heraldry should be consistent with GAME OF THRONES...but they went with the bad sigil rather than the good one. That sound you heard was me screaming, “no, no, no.” Those damned extra legs have even wormed their way onto the covers of my books, over my strenuous objections."
So both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragons botched the Targaryen heraldry, at least in part — early seasons of Thrones did have the correct two-legged version, until it changed for whatever reason. But when it comes to heraldry, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is taking pains to do it right. That makes sense, given that the entire first season will revolve around a grand tourney, complete with all the paegentry and heraldry that entails.
And of course, Martin is also a co-creator on this series, which was not the case on Game of Thrones, where he only served as a producer and writer. He is a co-creator on House of the Dragon as well, but as we saw last year from his very public spat with the show, his influence is limited. Perhaps he has a bit more creative control for the new prequel, or a more willing partner in showrunner Ira Parker.
Whatever the case, it's nice to see the Targaryen banner displayed proudly in the trailer for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. As for whether all the Targaryens at the tourney will live up to the lofty reputation of their storied house, well, that's another story. We'll be seeing both the good and bad sides of House Targaryen in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, thanks to figures like Aerion Brightflame (Finn Bennett) and Baelor Breakspear (Bertie Carvel). Expect drama aplenty.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres January 18, 2026 at 10:00 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max.