One would think A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was always intended to be a TV show. It only fits given the massive success of Game of Thrones and the perception that television is the medium needed to do justice to George R.R. Martin’s work.
However, in a recent roundtable attended by CBR, showrunner Ira Parker was asked whether the show was always envisioned this way. While stating that the six-episode format was "talked about right from the beginning," Parker claimed Martin’s own view was different.
"I would say it was probably George’s preference to do a two-hour movie," he recalled. "But since HBO came to me with this, they were very amenable to any length or format that we wanted to use."
This may be a surprise, yet Martin has hinted at wanting some sort of movie project involving the Song of Ice and Fire world for some time. Indeed, there had been attempts at a movie before HBO latched onto the property to create Game of Thrones, and for a while there was serious talk that the original show might end with a series of films. There’s also been buzz about a movie detailing how Aegon the Conqueror earned his name, but nothing is moving forward as of yet. Since the Dunk and Egg novella is much shorter, Martin perhaps thought an HBO film would fit it better.
However, Parker argued that the six-episode format is much more beneficial to the property thanks to how much shorter it is.
"Thirty to 60 minutes [allowed us] to lay down the type of story that was necessary based on the underlying material. Because everybody's read the novella, we know how much there is to mine here, and we didn't want to dump off on any weird side quests," he said.
It’s true the series puts the focus more on Dunk than other characters, yet it seems to work out and the shorter schedule helps.
Why the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms release schedule helps it
One thing fans have already noticed is that Knight has shorter episodes compared to Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon. That had some fans speculating on whether the show could benefit from having more episodes packed together.
Parker was asked that and clarified that a “binge drop” wouldn’t work out right.
“There's just something fun about waiting for a new Game of Thrones show. It is always nice when there's a new series around where you can do that. At least, that's how I came up watching it. The truth is that every episode has its own unique feel to it. It was very important that it didn't just feel like one big long movie divided up into six parts... that we were telling a story in each individual episode, and that each individual episode had its own feel and reason for existing. Hopefully, we've executed that well, but I guess we'll find out.”
Fans will agree with Parker, as the weekly installments are much better than just dropping all six episodes at once. It builds up anticipation and makes the story flow better with each weekly installment. That’s always better than having the six episodes lost in the mix coming out at once.
While it’s possible this story could still have worked as a movie, fans are no doubt grateful A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms became a show instead to do justice to this new tale!
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is streaming new episodes Sundays on HBO Max.