If you’re still recovering from the ending of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 5, you might want to brace yourself.
Don’t worry, we’re not going to spoil the events of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 5 for those who haven’t yet been able to watch the episode. Those who have seen the episode will surely agree that the fifth episode was the show’s most intense episode yet and ended with the season’s most shocking moment yet. It’s a moment that left fans speechless and wanting more.
Thankfully, episode 5 was not the final episode of the season and there is another episode coming our way. The bad news is that episode 6 will be our last episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' first season. That’s right, unfortunately, there is only one episode left in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 with the upcoming sixth episode serving as the season finale.
So why is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 only six episodes?
There are many factors that went into HBO’s decision to only give A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms a six-episode season. One of the biggest reasons stems from the fact that the show is an adaptation of a novella rather than a full novel. George R.R. Martin’s The Hedge Knight is only 184 pages long, which is less than a third of the length of the first novel in Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones.
As A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker explained to GQ, the plan was never to try to stretch out the source material with little side quests. They sought to adapt the first book in the Dunk and Egg series and remain true to the source material, and it just so happened that six episodes was the perfect amount of time to tell this story.
“We weren't stretching. We weren't doing any strange side quests with Dunk and Egg,” Parker explained. “We wrote it as if George had written a three-hundred-page book.”
The downside of this approach is a shorter season, but the upside has been a truly incredible adaptation of the source material. While we’d love more time with these characters, we appreciate Parker’s dedication to being faithful to the source material and not trying to stretch the season out just for the sake of delivering a longer season.
While episode 6 will be the final episode of the season, the good news is that a second season has already been ordered. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 2 is already in production and the next season is expected to arrive in 2027. That’s right, the upside of the shorter seasons is that we shouldn’t have to wait more than two or more years between seasons which is a welcome change of pace – and certainly something worth celebrating!
Of course, that doesn't make it any easier knowing that episode 6 will be the final episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1. However, if the worst this show does is leave us wanting more, that's not exactly a bad thing at all. We're bummed episode 6 will be the final chapter in the first season, but we're excited to see how the season comes to an end and what fallout awaits us after the trial of seven.
New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiere every Sunday night on HBO and HBO Max. Keep reading Winter is Coming and tune in for our weekly podcast, Take the Black, to follow along with our coverage all season long.