A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms established from the start that it was different from other Game of Thrones shows. First, it’s only half-hour episodes rather than the hour or longer for installments of GOT or House of the Dragon. Second, it’s far lighter and filled with humor as it follows Dunk (Peter Claffey) and would-be squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) as they navigate Westeros decades before the events of Game of Thrones.
The show’s humor has become a terrific facet of the series and is well accepted by fans. Yet speaking to Indiewire, showrunner Ira Parker admitted that he was truly nervous about whether the humor would work with the audiences. He approached the adaptation of George R.R. Martin's novella "The Hedge Knight" as a fun adventure, comparing it to the classic Japanese saga Lone Wolf and Cub, about a samurai and his son.
Parker said that HBO's familiarity with his writing style and a strong push from House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal gave the studio confidence that he could pull off the smaller-scale story. "It was this combination of the guy who wrote on House of the Dragon and a guy who wrote on Better Things coming to do this smaller, low-key show full of heart. They wanted it to feel quirky. Everybody has a different definition of that word: the joy and struggle of launching that show was how to dial that in. And fortunately, it seems we found the right spot.”
That brings us to the comedy of the show. It’s there in the first scene as a dramatic build to Dunk accepting his destiny, complete with the famous GOT theme music, which then cuts to him defecating behind a tree. Yes, we get action like the Trial of Seven, but the humor was far greater than in Thrones or Dragon.
“I always thought that my comedy writing sensibility was like, 30 Rock meets The West Wing,” Parker explained. “But then I rewatched Seinfeld for the first time in a long time. I stole a lot of stuff. There’s a lot of sarcasm, and a lot of personalities. You run it through your processor, and this other thing comes out. Obviously, we’re in the Game of Thrones world. There’s a lot that we drew on visually. [Michael] Fassbender’s Macbeth was a big one for us. I love the big historical epics that they don’t make anymore. I wanted, for our budget, for us to get as much scale as we possibly could by having the camera hang back in long, wide shots, and letting the action play out.”
When did the humor connect for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?
Parker's doubts about whether the humor was landing extended into the show's first premiere screening in Berlin, before ultimately being banished by subsequent screenings. “I wasn’t sure all the comedy was landing,” he recalled. “We went to Italy, and all the comedy was. The one that made me feel the best was London, maybe because it was a fan screening, and I was sitting amongst the crowd. That was the best reaction that I’d heard so far."
It sounds like season 2 will continue this trend with Dunk and Egg finding themselves engaged in a land dispute in the Reach in the midst of a terrible drought. Parker won’t share much more, but did throw in a unique idea on how he wants to ensure that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms lasts for future generations.
“Our goal was to make something that felt timeless. But it has to have legs. If you go back 30 years, you find people being shitty to each other and in need of a hero with good grounding and honorableness to lift people out of that. And if you go back 30 years before that, and 30 years before that. So look, I hope in another 30 years, people aren’t re-watching this, thinking, ‘Man, this is so timely,’ but I’m afraid that’s generally the case.”
So far, Parker’s plans are working, as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set for a second season that will hopefully match the humor of the first.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 is streaming on HBO Max. Season 2 is currently filming, and is expected to premiere in 2027.
Add us as a preferred source on Google