Knight school
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker outlines his approach to leading this latest Game of Thrones spin-off, the relatable adventures of its central characters and casting its leading duo.
Ira Parker’s writing and producing credits include dystopian drama The Last Ship, dark comedy Better Things and fantasy series The Nevers. But it’s his role as a co-executive producer on season one of House of the Dragon that means he’s well placed to guide viewers through the world of the latest Game of Thrones spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
Based on a series of novellas by Thrones creator George RR Martin, the series is set a century before the events of that series, revolving around two unlikely heroes who wander Westeros: a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan ‘Dunk’ the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg. In an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed, great destinies, powerful foes and dangerous exploits await these improbable and incomparable friends.
Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell star as Dunk and Egg, with Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon, Bertie Carvel as Baelor Targaryen, Danny Webb as Ser Arlan of Pennytree, Sam Spruell as Maekar Targaryen, Shaun Thomas as Raymun Fossoway and Finn Bennett as Aerion Targaryen. The cast also features Edward Ashley as Ser Steffon Fossoway, Tanzyn Crawford as Tanselle, Henry Ashton as Daeron Targaryen, Youssef Kerkour as Steely Pate, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor as Plummer and Daniel Monks as Ser Manfred Dondarrion.
Parker is the showrunner and co-created the series alongside Martin, with filming already underway on its second season. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuted in January on HBO and HBO Max and in the US, Sky and NOW in the UK, and HBO Max across the rest of Europe.
DQ was in Berlin for the launch of the series, where Parker spoke about dramatising the adventures of Dunk and Egg, working with Martin and why he hopes the series will bring new fans to the Thrones universe.
For Parker, telling the story of Dunk and Egg represented a chance to tackle Martin’s last unadapted prose.
Parker: There’s just something so hopeful and earnest and guileless about Dunk that makes him so likeable. And his journey is a familiar one, trying to do something that is too difficult, that is too tough, that is very scary. Dunk hears the hero theme in his head. He picks up the sword. He wants so badly to go and do this, but then he realises he’s not the hero. All of a sudden, he finds himself in a different position, squatting down in a very unheroic [position].
That can be true to life, that a lot of people hear the call and not everybody is well suited to it. Whether or not Dunk is going to be able to endure – that’s his superpower, to just get up and put one foot in front of the other – that’s going to be the test of season one.
He wanted the show to be as “gritty and real” as possible while viewers follow Dunk on his personal quest to become a fully fledged knight, admitting “we’re not going to be as polished” as Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon.
We’re not living in the beautiful halls of the Red Keep. We’re earthy and we let Dunk be our guide for tone. Things go from hopeful and optimistic to the grim reality of trying to do something you were probably quite ill-equipped for. It’s an experience we probably all have had at some point in our lives, just a little bit of insecurity, a little bit of anxiety about starting a new job, where we’ve lied on our resumé and now we actually have to go and do this thing.
In everybody’s life, there’s comedy knocking right up against tragedy, unfortunately, so that was our main driver. We wanted our actors to bring as much of themselves into these roles as possible – just as much of their vulnerabilities and, on the flip side of that, over-confidence and people being dicks to each other. Not everybody’s a good person all the time. We let everybody do their own thing.
Working with George RR Martin was one of the “most fulfilling creative partnerships” Parker has enjoyed in his career, and the author was among the first people to see each script – but not before Parker’s wife had read them.
I would send George the draft, and we would just have conversations about these scripts. He would ask a lot of questions – ‘Why did you decide to do it like this? Why did you change that?’ That’s how you come up with all the best ideas. He would explain why he did something initially, [like] why we never have Egg POVs and why it’s all done through Dunk’s POV. He said he tried it a few times, but we have a couple of moments of Egg POVs in this where we actually break away from Dunk. I would explain other reasons why we think it’s important, or it’s earned.
One of the things we established early on was that we would never be in the POV of the lords and ladies, kings and queens and the princes. Egg might break something of that, but because he’s still a kid, because he’s still unmolded clay, it felt OK because his lot is not set yet. We haven’t decided what it is. That’s just a small example of a conversation that we had as to why we do that. We’re never gonna go, in season two, into the Red Widow’s POV. We’re not gonna start telling her story. But between Dunk and Egg, we do that just a little bit.
While House of the Dragon is based on parts of Martin’s Fire & Blood novel, which marks it out as a “freer” adaptation, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms followed the “textbook” of Martin’s Tales of Dunk & Egg novellas, comprising The Hedge Knight, The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight.
Starting with such a strong skeleton, we knew what our beginning was. We knew what our end was. We just had to fill out the world. We had to have fun. We had to really get to love these characters, especially Dunk and Egg, and also get to meet these other people who are just interesting to me as a showrunner. Lyonel Baratheon – who’s not gonna love Lyonel Baratheon? He’s just so much fun.
Casting Ansell as Egg was “easy,” with Parker describing the young British actor as “the world’s best child actor.” Similarly, he believes Dunk couldn’t have been played by anyone other than Irish star Claffey.
When you’re looking for somebody who’s 6’11, it really narrows down your search – and this was a worldwide search to have a guy who is not only a 6’11 beanpole, because Dunk can’t be that. He has to be hardy and he has to be big. To have a former professional rugby player turned actor who has done drama in Vikings, who’s done comedy in Bad Sisters, is just the dream. Peter had never been number one on a call sheet before, but our casting director said every single time he comes in, this guy is just exponentially better than the last time. What you’re looking for when you’re trying to cast an unknown is just somebody who you don’t know what their feeling is. It’s an unfinished product, and Peter just continues to grow and grow and grow.
In the series, Dunk is an unpolished, aspiring knight, who hears a call leading him to greatness. Yet he remains nervous and anxious – qualities that will characterise his growth across season one and into season two.
It’s a funny thing with TV, because obviously all TV used to be about keeping your character the exact same through as many seasons as you possibly can. I don’t know if it was Game of Thrones that changed that, or if it was Breaking Bad that took a character from Mr Chips to Scarface. We want to push it a little bit. Dunk is never going to be not Dunk. He could be at the end of his life and still be anxious, because there’s just new challenges that come up for you. In season two, if you’ve read the books, you know there’s just a little bit of politics. Dunk has to go sort things out, and he knows how to fight pretty well, but doesn’t know how to talk to a high-born lady. So it’s a new something. It’s always him, but yes, he does get better and more confident in certain aspects.
Parker hopes A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms can be an “on ramp” for people to get into the world of Game of Thrones, especially if they were put off by the blood and gore of the original series.
Game of Thrones opens [in the first episode] with a bunch of mutilated bodies and then closes with a kid being thrown out of a window. So if you are squeamish for whatever reason, you may have thought, ‘Oh, Game of Thrones, it’s gory. I don’t want to see that.’ To a certain extent, we could be an on-ramp for those people, because we do start off in a more pleasantish way. There’s still sadness and tragedy, but we do have some comedy early on and it does feel a little bit lighter, but we will run the full gamut. I do hope we expand this world to this audience. I hope new people come to this and watch it, and it drives them back to watch the original, which is just fucking incredible. House of the Dragon has one of the greatest pilots I’ve ever seen. We’ll see.
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