A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner talks brightness and color in new Game of Thrones spinoff

2026 will begin strongly with an all-new show in the Game of Thrones universe. Titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the series takes place almost a century before the events of the main show. It chronicles the adventures of knight-for-hire Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell).

The prequel series is short and sweet, consisting of six 30-minute episodes for its first season. After the official trailer recently debuted at New York Comic Con, viewers have noticed that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has a completely different tone from Game of Thrones. It strays from the high politics of Westeros, focusing instead on a more personal story about a knight and his squire tying to make their way in the Seven Kingdoms. It's based on a series of novellas written by George R.R. Martin, The Tales of Dunk and Egg, which are shorter stories that fit the tone of this new show.

The change in darkness refers to both the gritty nature of the franchise, as well as its visual style. Game of Thrones was very dark; perhaps too dark at times. In fact, it often received complaints about that darkness. Remember season 8, episode 3, "The Long Night," where viewers had to turn their brightness up to see what was going on in the battle? Well, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms certainly won't have that issue.

While speaking at New York Comic-Con, showrunner Ira Parker explained how the show switches things up with a new, brighter tone. “When you look at the 14th-century, they love their colors. This is a very, very colorful period," he explained.

One of the major events in season 1 is a tourney that Ser Duncan takes part in. “It’s a tournament. It’s supposed to be fun and people showing off — we’re going to have a lot of color in that,” Parker added.

All of that said, the blend of lightness and darkness is a fine balancing act. “I hope it’s not bright,” he said. “Bright is a very dangerous thing. We thought a lot about how dark to make this show, because obviously there’s been backlashes before. But the truth is, if you make it too bright it does read as a fantasy-ish fairytale. We’re trying to stay away from fairytale. We want it to feel like how we interact with the world. Sometimes it’s quite colorful; other times it’s actually quite dark...we want this to feel as real and gritty and as honest as possible”

Parker revealed that the fourth episode of the season is the darkest, since it takes place mostly at night. "Look, you get a litle bit of everything in this show," he said. "It starts quite gray, I actually think...and then cut right to color, because it's a different day. And it just shows that sort of, even after really bad shit happens in your life, you know, the next day there's just color, the sun comes out again and you're off. So hopefully that's the feeling people will take away from it."

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuts January 18, 2026 on HBO and HBO Max.