A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finishes its six-episode first season as a triumph—and simply in time for this franchise. It premiered at a second when the broader Game of Thrones universe was foundering. Beyond the extensively panned last two seasons of Thrones, its spinoff House of the Dragon had a choppy Season 2, and creator George R.R. Martin hadn’t managed so as to add new pages to his e-book sequence in eight years By the time A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiered final month, the reminiscence of when Thrones was nice tv had largely pale, changed by widespread frustration with unhealthy writing—or with no writing in any respect.
But the primary season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has breathed new life into the franchise. Based on Martin’s 1998 novella, The Hedge Knight, the primary season wasn’t trying to be Game of Thrones again. No Iron Throne, no massive battles (more or less), no dragons. Just a handful of nice characters and, as showrunner Ira Parker put it last year, “a lot of heart.”
Now the problem shall be following that up. Season 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is already in manufacturing, with Parker and Co. at work adapting The Sworn Sword, Martin’s second novella within the Dunk and Egg saga. Immediately, we’re a harder adaptation. Without giving an excessive amount of away, The Sworn Sword one way or the other options even decrease stakes than The Hedge Knight. The basic battle of the novella revolves round a dispute in regards to the water rights to a stream. There is far much less motion. Most of the novella is simply characters speaking—there isn’t a tourney, for instance. Viewers loved the small scale of Season 1, however Season 2 might stress simply how low the stakes can get earlier than it appears like virtually nothing is going on. “I think the scope will be the same, maybe even smaller,” Parker told The Hollywood Reporter in January.
Additionally, not one of the secondary characters from the primary season shall be returning—at the very least they don’t within the e-book. You’ll get Dunk and Egg once more (who have been portrayed splendidly by Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell, respectively), however that’s it. Say goodbye, in all probability, to Daniel Ings’s Lyonel Baratheon, Shaun Thomas’s Raymun Fossoway, and each single Targaryen outdoors of Egg. They might return in future seasons, however, at the very least in response to the novella, not right here. We will get a brand new solid of characters orbiting Duncan and Egg—together with a few of my absolute favorites, so keep tuned—however the figures you’ve grown connected to will seemingly be sidelined for a while.
Parker has confirmed that the plan is to inform one other six-episode story in Season 2. But that additionally presents challenges, as The Sworn Sword is much less suited to be damaged down into TV episodes. There aren’t actually any massive twists on the extent of Egg revealing himself to be Aegon Targaryen that function pure midseason climaxes, and Parker famous in January that, as a result of they must movie in hotter areas for Season 2, their price range shall be extra stretched this time round. “The budget has stayed the same,” he instructed THR. “But everything is more expensive due to inflation. Plus, book two takes place in a drought, so we can’t shoot exteriors in Belfast. We have to go to a sunny location with no water, which costs money—that’s a major expense that we did not have in Season 1.”
There’s additionally a lot of lore. Lots of discuss the Blackfyre Rebellion. The first season made in depth use of flashbacks, and the present might accomplish that once more in Season 2 and present a lot of the rebel, which might resolve some issues across the lack of motion, however it’s tough to sq. the way it might accomplish that with the budgetary restrictions Parker outlined above. And present an excessive amount of of the rebel, and also you begin to drift too distant from Dunk and Egg. Talk an excessive amount of in regards to the rebel in any respect, and viewers might begin to marvel why they didn’t simply make a present about that. It’s a troublesome needle to string.
That’s Season 2. Then there’s Season 3, which has already been green-lit. That season will presumably adapt The Mystery Knight, which comes with a bit extra motion than The Sworn Sword and needs to be extra easy. But then we’re staring into the void—simply as Thrones did greater than a decade in the past when it outpaced Martin’s novels.
As Arlan tells Dunk within the finale, “A true knight always finishes a story.” I don’t assume that line was an accident—even when it reads a bit like a dig at Martin himself. It have to be that the purpose is for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to finish the tales of Dunk and Egg.
Parker has hinted at such. He recently shared that Martin gave him outlines for “10-12 stories in addition to the first three,” after which added that “anything beyond book three (if we could ever be so wonderfully lucky) would highly involve George.” Martin has lengthy talked about wanting to jot down roughly a dozen Dunk and Egg novellas that inform your entire tales of their lives, however—cease me when you’ve heard this one earlier than—his precise publishing of them has stalled. The Mystery Knight, the newest novella, was launched in 2010. This present could possibly be Martin’s probability to complete telling the tales of those two characters.
And sure, the potential pitfall right here is apparent. Thrones nose-dived shortly after it outpaced Martin’s writing, and on reflection, most of the worst components of the sequence have been when that crew determined to deviate from Martin’s work It’s truthful to be nervous.
The excellent news is that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms already needed to extensively deviate from the novella, and did so nicely. Not each change labored—I discovered the flashback in Episode 5 to be an enormous misstep, for instance. But others have been extraordinary. The scene in Lyonel’s tent in Episode 1 was the most effective of the season, and it was wholly unique. Other highlights embrace the addition of the intercourse employee characters that Dunk interacts with, the “Alice With Three Fingers” pub music and subsequent dialog between Dunk and Egg, and Egg going off to coach Thunder for the joust. Those scenes present that Parker and Co. can increase on Martin’s work and discover success.
They’ll have to flex that muscle for this sequence to proceed flourishing. Season 1 was wonderful, however it was additionally the simplest story to adapt. It’ll solely get harder from right here. Luckily the early returns point out that this present is as much as the duty.
Riley McAtee
Riley McAtee is a senior editor at The Ringer who focuses on America’s two greatest sports activities: the NFL and ‘Survivor.’
