Game of Thrones prequel star posts workout video of himself getting "thick as a castle wall"

Last week, we learned that HBO had cast the two lead roles in yet another Game of Thrones prequel series: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight will star Irish actor Peter Claffey as the formidable knight Ser Duncan the Tall, aka Dunk, and child actor Dexter Sol Ansell as his diminuative squire Aegon V Targaryen, aka Egg. Together, these two will wander the Seven Kingdoms helping people and solving problems.

The Hedge Knight is set decades after the events of House of the Dragon and decades before the events of Game of Thrones. While both those shows have sprawling casts, George R.R. Martin's Dunk and Egg novellas stay pretty tightly focused on Dunk and Egg, so expect to spend a lot of time with them.

At seven feet tall, Dunk is a huge, intimidating guy, not someone you want to mess with by the looks of him. He's also loyal, stubborn and honorable. Some characters see this and assume he's just slow on the uptake. In the novellas, he's described as "Dunk the Lunk, thick as a castle wall," a reference both to his unyielding personality and to the fact that he's built like a battleship.

Peter Claffey is a former rugby player who stands at 6'4", so he's a pretty big dude himself. But he's pushing things even further for the show. On his Instagram, he posted a video of himself doing pull-ups, doing push-ups, and lifting weights, with the intention of getting "thick as a castle wall." He posted the video to his Instagram Stories, which self-destruct after a while, but the pictures remain:

Actors posting jacked gym selfies of themselves before they take on new roles seems de rigueur these days; Liam Hemsworth recently did something similar ahead of his debut as Geralt of Rivia in The Witcher season 4. What's the point of getting all those muscles if you can't show them off? A TV show can only have so many shirtless scenes.

Dexter Sol Ansell is also hyping up his role as Egg, albeit in a more G-rated way:

We'll likely see these two in action as Dunk and Egg sometime in 2025. In the meantime, the second season of House of the Dragon premieres on HBO and Max on Sunday, June 16.

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