A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (2026)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has been described as a comedy. It isn’t. It’s no more or less funny than its parent show Game of Thrones, which is to say it has a sense of humour; but so do The Sopranos, The Wire and even Oz. It just depends on your sense of humour. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is what I’m led to believe the book is, a short story from the Game of Thrones world. That’s no bad thing, or rather could be no bad thing.
A “hedge Knight” (Knight without a house’s banner to back him), who is faking it till he makes it, Duncan (Peter Claffey), wandering a bit lost after squiring the recently deceased Ser Arlan, meets an odd and enthusiastic bald kid called Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) and tries to enter and survive a regional tourney. If you don’t know what any of that means, it doesn’t really matter, the show doesn’t need you to be au fait with Westerosy lexicon to get involved.
If you’ve seen Brian Helgeland’s fantastically fun A Knight’s Tale, this is a similar theme. Dare I say, if you’ve seen and enjoyed A Knight’s Tale, you’ll find A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms entertaining, if a lot more adult.
Six, half hour, episodes is very short and certainly in the UK we’re really only used to seeing that in our BBC comedies. A short story with none of the wider politics or scale of the huge environment created by Game of Thrones, it is initially a little frustrating, but only because A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is so good.
How would I make A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? Well, I toyed with thinking it could be a film but that wouldn’t make money or more importantly fit into the Game of Thrones world. I looked this up and apparently the writer of the book(s) George R.R. Martin suggested a film, and the men in suits said, “no, we’re a TV show, a film wouldn’t fit into the Game of Thrones world”. Just call me Halaena*.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will leave you wanting more, and that’s good because there is a lot more to come, especially if show runner Ira Parker gets his way- planning a ridiculous amount of longer lore over many years. He may be overstretching, but after one series I’m certainly clamoring for its second.
They plan to make a season/series every year unlike other major TV productions these days who put 24 months at least between release. In this case the haste is presumably partly so they don’t have to recast the superb Dexter Sol Ansell when he hits puberty.
As a standalone story A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is wonderful. Six, half hour episodes are not enough and don’t seem to do it justice, yet the character building, enough violence and nods to its loved sire are a wonderful addition to the burgeoning Game of Thrones back catalogue. The universe has landed and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a very welcome addition. 8/10
*Just like Halaena I babble incoherently and sometimes am prophetically correct. I’m also very pretty. Didn’t fuck my brother though and still won’t, please stop texting me.
Comments
Post a Comment