Fans of the World of Ice and Fire have been early anticipating the next HBO series based on George R.R. Martin's Westeros books, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The first season of the show, which premiers on HBO Max on January 18, 2026, will adapt the first of Martin's Dunk and Egg novellas, The Hedge Knight.
Despite the familiar IP, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will feel like a far cry from HBO's two previous Westeros shows, Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Both of those series feature a heavy handed tone and focus on the big, world changing politics of the nobility. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, meanwhile, will follow smaller scale adventures, and aims for a much lighter tone. Additionally, unlike the ensemble cast of Westerosi nobles and rulers acting as the leads of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, the lowborn and destitute Ser Duncan the Tall, a.k.a. Dunk, played by Peter Claffey, will always act as the main character of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
As such, rewatching Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon might not be the most effective way to get hyped for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. However, a completely unrelated action comedy film from 2001 could perfectly fit the bill, making for the ultimate pre-A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms watch.
A Knight's Tale, the perfect prelude to Dunk and Egg
A Knight's Tale, directed by Brian Helgeland, released in 2001 to a somewhat mixed reception. However, in the years since, it's become a beloved action/comedy among its fans. Incidentally, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will likely bear several major similarities to the film.
A Knight's Tale stars Heath Ledger as William Thatcher, a lowborn squire with dreams of participating in jousting tournaments and becoming a knight. After his master, Sir Ector, dies shortly before a tourney, William impersonates the deceased knight in order to compete and ends up victorious. After training with his fellow squires Roland and Wat, William adopts the alias of the noble Sir Ulrich von Liechtenstein to continue to joust, taking the nobility by storm, all while hiding his true identity.
Although A Knight's Tale came out a good ten years before Game of Thrones first premiered, the two unrelated projects share a surprising connection. Roland, another of Sir Ector's squires and one of William's closest friends throughout the film, is played by Mark Addy, who A Song of Ice and Fire fans may recognize as King Robert Baratheon from the first season of Game of Thrones. Addy's Roland, another lowborn, shares little in common with King Robert, but fans who watch A Knight's Tale to gear up for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will appreciate seeing "Bobby B" on the big screen.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker explained at a recent panel at New York Comic Con that, with the show, he aims to create some of the best jousting tournament scenes ever put to film. Any fan looking for a taste of cinematic jousting ahead of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms should look no further than A Knight's Tale. The film treats its jousting sequences the same way a sports movie handles its scenes set on the field, resulting in some epic horseback confrontations that will provide Parker with a big challenge if he hopes to meet his goal.
The plot of A Knight's Tale even bears some striking similarities to Martin's The Hedge Knight novella. Both stories open with the death of a knight, and shortly thereafter, that knight's squire, William and Dunk respectively, acts as a knight. Additionally, both stories feature prominent squire characters, with Roland and Wat filling similar roles to Dunk's squire Egg; an emphasis on the protagonist's poverty and need to win money and prizes as well as glory in the tournaments, as opposed to many of his high born competitors; members of royalty, being Prince Baelor in The Hedge Knight and Prince Edward in A Knight's Tale, vouching for the protagonist, ultimately allowing them to compete in their tournaments; and, of course, an abundance of jousting.
Ultimately, the fact that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms seems more similar at first glance to a nearly 25-year-old movie than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon could be a promising direction for the franchise. While the first two of HBO's Westeros shows are both undeniably fantastic, they're strikingly similar to each other, down to using the same opening theme. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms promises to take the franchise in an exciting new direction so it doesn't grow stale with each additional release.
Though January 18 can't get here fast enough, A Knight's Tale can help eager fans pass the time until the next big release from Westeros.