Heading into the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, we expected to meet many characters who had connections to the characters from Game of Thrones; what we did not expect was to see anyone from the actual show.
While A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set within the same universe as Game of Thrones, the show is set nearly a century before the events that unfold in Game of Thrones. Due to this sizable gap in the timeline, any direct crossover with the original series seemed firmly off the table. After all, the characters we come to know and love in Game of Thrones wouldn’t have even been born yet with the expectation being we’d get callbacks rather than direct character crossovers.
Interestingly, it seems there was one Game of Thrones character who actually almost made an appearance in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. During an AMA on Reddit, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker revealed that the first season nearly featured a younger version of Maester Aemon.
“Almost happened. Then it didn’t,” Parker revealed when asked if we might ever see Aemon in the show.
Parker played coy with the details of the situation and has failed to add additional information since the AMA, but the fact that the show nearly included a young version of Maester Aemon is certainly exciting and would have been amazing to have seen.
For those who aren’t familiar with George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, it is established in the books that Maester Aemon is one of Maekar Targaryen’s sons and, therefore, one of Egg’s older brothers. While Egg does not have a good relationship with Aerion Targaryen, he and Aemon had a much better relationship and Aemon is mentioned a few times within the Dunk and Egg novellas.
In the first season of the show, there is a brief nod to Aemon in episode 3 when Dunk and Fossoway are chatting about the current state of House Targaryen. During the conversation, Fossoway makes a brief reference to Maekar’s kids describing his third son as “so useless they were going to ship him off to the Citadel to make a maester of him.” Aemon is not mentioned directly in name, but book readers are able to deduce that he is the brother being referenced.
The reference made for a fun Easter egg for Game of Thrones fans, but it would have been amazing to actually get to meet a young Aemon. Thankfully, it sounds like while they couldn’t pull it off in the first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, there is hope as Parker did note that it’s “possible” we could see Aemon appear in the series and left the door open to him making an appearance sometime down the line.
Interestingly, there is an actual precedent from the book for them to potentially include him at the beginning of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 2.
In the second book in Martin’s series, The Sworn Sword, about a year and a half has passed and Dunk and Egg are traveling. At one point, they stop at Oldtown where they visit Aemon, who is there studying to be a maester. In the book he’s only mentioned, but the show could choose to work in an actual scene or two which would give fans the chance to meet the young version of Aemon in the show.
This would be a fun moment for Game of Thrones fans as it would be exciting to get a glimpse into the past and see what Aemon was like in his youth. It’s clear that Aemon and Egg have a much closer relationship as Aemon’s final words in Game of Thrones included a reference to his little brother with his last words on his deathbed being, “Egg, I dreamed I was old.” While the brothers went on very different paths, it would be fun to see them interact on-screen via A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Hopefully, Parker will be able to find a natural way to work in an interaction even if just via a quick scene or two early in season 2.