Game of Thrones prequel show A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms narrows down release date

House of the Dragon season 2 may have brought us back to Westeros in spectacular fashion this year, but in 2025 we'll be watching the start of a very different sort of Game of Thrones show: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Based on George R.R. Martin's Dunk & Egg novellas, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will tell the story of an earnest but rock-headed knight named Ser Duncan the Tall and his precocious squire Egg, who wander Westeros on various adventures. The Dunk & Egg novellas are much lighter fare than most of the weighty, dark stories Martin tells in Westeros, which should make for a pretty interesting and entertaining ride.

We've known for a while now that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is premiering in 2025, but as we near the end of the year we're finally getting more details. According to Variety, Warner Bros. Discovery global streaming chief JB Perrette has said that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will come out in the summer of 2025. However, Variety's own sources put the release date in "late 2025." Meanwhile, HBO's other big genre show of the year, The Last of Us, will drop its second season in "spring 2025."

Admittedly, both of these dates are later than I expected, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It'll give both The Last of Us and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms a smidge more time in post-production, which can only lead to stronger seasons of television. Plus, now we know we'll have big genre tentpole shows from HBO both early and later in the year to keep us coming back throughout 2025. I'm sure whoever monitors the subscription counts for Max will be thrilled.

As for what we can expect in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, this first six-episode season will adapt Martin's novellas The Hedge Knight, which shows how Dunk and Egg first meet as the newly minted knight heads to a tournament at Ashford Meadow. This is the origin story for these characters, and aside from a couple of scenes at the beginning, the entire thing happens at the big tourney. The Hedge Knight takes place some 90 years before Game of Thrones, when the dragons of House Targaryen are extinct, so this show will be able to sink a lot more of its budget into depicting a tourney with all its pageantry in a way that Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon were never able to do. Martin sounds pleased with how it's turning out, and that's enough to make me pretty excited to see it.

We'll have our ear to the ground for more news about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as we head into the new year. And if you don't want to wait that long to find out what these stories are all about, all three published Dunk & Egg novellas are available in an omnibus book, also called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. They're short and very much worth a read!

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