It's a glorious night to be back in Westeros, with the premiere of HBO's brand new spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Gone are the dragons, the White Walkers, the machinations of kings and queens, and the cut-throat political maneuvering for the Iron Thone. In its place we have a humble knight and his not-so-humble squire, off to a tournament in search of renown and possible employment from some lord or other.
Based on George R.R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a smaller-scale story than we're used to from Westeros, but it's no less compelling for it. The series premiere, "The Hedge Knight," introduces us to the knight at the heart of it all, Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), as he meets the aspiring squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) and sets off for the tourney at Ashford Meadow.
As is custom at Winter Is Coming, we're breaking down each episode of this latest Westeros show on our Take the Black podcast right after it airs. Our first A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms aftershow episode is now live, so you can listen as new co-host Marq Nettles and I discuss the finer points of "The Hedge Knight." Comment to get in on the conversation!
In general, we have pretty much all positive things to say about this first episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. The show's off to a great start! From its different tone to its pitch-perfect cast, new composer, vivid settings, and immersive costuming, there's rarely a misstep to be found in "The Hedge Knight." It's a great introduction that's shockingly faithful to George R.R. Martin's novella of the same name. That isn't to say that there aren't changes from the source material, though; we get into that as well.
While these aftershows will typically be dedicated to the episode we're breaking down, we obviously couldn't do this discussion without getting into that massive new interview that The Hollywood Reporter published with Martin last week. How do we feel about a certain beloved character being confirmed to return in The Winds of Winter as a point-of-view character? About the rift between Martin and House of the Dragon showrunner Ryan Condal? About the hints at massive differences between the remaining A Song of Ice and Fire books and the "happy ending" of Game of Thrones? There's so much there to dissect, and we have a lot of thoughts!
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New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiere Sunday nights at 10:00 p.m. EST on HBO and HBO Max. New episodes of Take the Black drop right after during the show's run. See you next week for more Dunk and Egg!