The first season of HBO Max’s “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” concluded Sunday with a bittersweet victory for Dunk and a looming question mark over the future of his relationship with his new squire, Egg. The finale saw Dunk, portrayed by Peter Claffey, emerge victorious from a brutal melee, but haunted by the accidental death of Baelor Targaryen (Bertie Carvel) during the tournament.
Following Baelor’s funeral, Dunk was approached by Maekar Targaryen (Sam Spruell) with an offer to serve under him and take his son, Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), as a squire. However, Dunk, weary of the intrigues of noble houses, initially declined. A visit from the ghost of his mentor, Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb), prompted a change of heart, leading Dunk to ultimately accept the responsibility of guiding Egg away from what he perceived as the dangerous influence of his Targaryen family. The pair departed, with Dunk honoring Ser Arlan’s tradition by nailing a penny to a tree before their journey began, as Arlan’s ghost watched before riding off on his own path.
The final scene depicted Dunk and Egg discussing a potential journey to Dorne, the southern region of Westeros, while Maekar desperately searched for his missing son. This sets the stage for a possible Targaryen pursuit in the show’s second season.
Ira Parker, co-creator and showrunner of “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” addressed several key aspects of the finale and the upcoming season in a recent interview with Variety. He explained the reasoning behind the show’s title change at the end of the finale to “A Knight of the Nine Kingdoms,” describing it as a deliberate attempt to inject a lighter tone into the series. “People may hate it or crucify me for that, but there’s a bit of a lighter touch to these shows,” Parker said. “We want to make Westeros a fun place to hang out, even when terrible, terrible things are happening.”
Parker too revealed that George R.R. Martin initially objected to the show being titled “Dunk & Egg,” fearing it would sound too much like a sitcom. “Early on, George was like, ‘Just don’t call it ‘Dunk & Egg’ — it sounds like ‘Laverne & Shirley.’ It sounds like a sitcom,’” Parker recounted. He ultimately agreed, believing that “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” offered a more nuanced introduction to the world of the show.
Season 2 will largely adapt George R.R. Martin’s second “Dunk and Egg” novella, “The Sworn Sword,” with the possibility of adapting “The Mystery Knight” in a potential third season. Parker confirmed that the show will indeed feature a journey to Dorne, though the extent of their time there remains to be seen. “They do go to Dorne. How much of that we cover, I’ll depart up to people to tune in for Season 2,” he stated.
While the series focuses primarily on Dunk’s perspective, Parker indicated that characters from Season 1 may reappear. “The one thing about this show, the nobles, the kings and queens are all terribly interesting…But the truth is that’s not what this show is,” Parker explained. “We are bottom-up. We are in Dunk’s POV.” He added, “Whether or not somebody will come in and out of Dunk’s world again, I would say probably.”
The second season will maintain the six-episode format of the first, a structure Parker found ideal for adapting the source material. He also noted that the Blackfyre Rebellions, a significant event in Westeros’s history, will serve as important background context, informing the motivations and relationships of characters they encounter. “We are 15 years outside of a massive civil war, and so there’s still a lot of those lingering resentments,” Parker said. He emphasized the show’s commitment to expanding upon Martin’s work rather than creating entirely new storylines, describing the writing process as if they were “writing this TV show as if George had written a novel instead of a novella.”
