New A Song of Ice and Fire calendar will focus on Dunk and Egg and include some surprises

Every year, fans get a brand new A Song of Ice and Fire calendar, with different artists drafted to bring to life the places, people and things imagined up by George R.R. Martin in his iconic book series. The 2025 calendar is on sale now and features the artwork of Eddie Mendoza; the images depict a variety of events from throughout's Martin's mythology.

Fansite Westeros.org has gotten information about the 2026 calendar, which will feature art by Tom Kidd, who previously provided art for a special illustrated edition of Martin's book Dying of the Light. The 2026 calendar will focus entirely on Dunk and Egg, the heroes of Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, which HBO is adapting as a new Game of Thrones prequel show called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

Briefly, the Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas follow a stalwart knight named Ser Duncan the Tall and his precocious squire Egg, who travel around the Seven Kingdoms having adventures. Martin has released three novellas in this series so far: "The Hedge Knight," which will form the basis of the first season of the HBO show; "The Sworn Sword" and "The Mystery Knight." All of these stories are set within the bounds of Westeros proper, so it was surprising to hear that the calendar will depict Dunk and Egg on the continent of Essos. Check out the official description:

"Journey across Westeros and Essos with artist Tom Kidd, as we follow the adventures of hedge knight, Dunk, and his squire, Egg, inspired by their tale in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Featuring the pre-history of the bestselling series, as well as youthful glimpses of some of the older players in A Game of Thrones, here is the width and breadth of the Seven Kingdoms and Essos as you have never seen it before, full of majesty and sweeping vistas."

None of the official Dunk and Egg novellas take the pair to Essos, so what gives? Well, while Martin has only written the three so far, he's talked about wanting to write many more; he even has a title in mind for the fourth: "The She-Wolves of Winterfell." According to fansite Los Siete Reinos, there's long been talk of another story where Dunk and Egg would travel to the Disputed Lands on Essos and join up with the Golden Company, a mercenary company we actually saw briefly on Game of Thrones.

We'll know more when the 2026 A Song of Ice and Fire releases on July 22, 2025. That should dovetail nicely with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which will premiere on HBO and Max in the back half of next year.

Will Dunk and Egg ever travel to Essos in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms?

This talk of Dunk and Egg in Essos raises an interesting question: HBO surely wants this new series to run for a while, but it only has three novellas to work with. After it adapts those three, what next?

Well, they could end things there...or they could keep writing new adventures for Dunk and Egg beyond what Martin has written. That idea probably strikes fear into the hearts of Game of Thrones fans, since it's widely agreed that the original show started to lose its way after it ran out of source material to adapt, with Martin still working on the final books in his Song of Ice and Fire series.

I think it'll depend on how A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms fares when it finally comes out. If showrunner Ira Parker and his team do a splendid job of adapting the first three novellas, maybe they'll have proven they have what it takes to strike out on their own. If the adaptations fall short, maybe it'd be better to pull the plug while they're ahead. We'll have a better idea of all of this next year.

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