The new Game of Thrones prequel,‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘, presents a story of knights, but without dragons, based on the novel ‘The Knight Errant’ by George R. R. Martin, with touches of humor and epic in equal parts.
This prequel will be available to European audiences starting January 19 on HBO, while the second season is already in production.
This is a story following ‘The Dragon House’, but takes place some 90 years before the original, and features entirely new characters and follows the stories of Dunk or Ser Duncan (Peter Claffey), an aspiring knight, and Egg, his little bald squire.
Co-creator and executive producer Ira Parker explained at a virtual press conference with the cast of the series that the relationship between Dunk and Egg is not only that of knight and squire, but also that of “mentor and disciple”, “master and apprentice”, and even “father and son”.
Claffey acknowledged that working with Dexter Sol Ansell, the 11-year-old who plays Egg, was like dealing with an actor who has been in the industry for 50 years because of his “incredible maturity” despite his youth.
He also noted that he admired his character’s “moral compass and sense of chivalry”: “I feel that in a world as ruthless and as cruel as Westeros (Westeros) can be, where there is a lot of betrayal and backstabbing, it’s a very nice and endearing thing to see a character like Dunk.
High expectations for ‘The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’.
The actors had different perspectives on how to address fan expectations, given that Game of Thrones has a huge fan following, both from the books and the series.
Sam Spruell, who plays Maekar Targaryen, said he made a pact with himself not to think about it and to focus on the script: “I think the work starts to lose quality and effectiveness (when you think about fan expectations) and you actually stop doing what you wanted to do in the first place.”
However, Finn Bennett (Aerion Targaryen) admitted that he did feel the pressure of being part of this world, but that it faded as he worked with the different teams and departments that bring the series to life.
At the press conference, they recalled one of the first scenes of the first episode in which the soundtrack of the original series plays and then the main character is shown defecating.
Parker explained that they decided not to include the soundtrack theme associated with his character yet because his character has not yet become the hero he wants to become, so he is crouched behind a tree in “a very unheroic position.”
In this sense, Claffey added that the series contains the “great epic element of battles and other Game of Thrones stuff, but without losing its humorous side.”
Actor Daniel Ings, who plays Lyonel Baratheon in the series, also reflected on how parts of George R. R. Martin’s original ‘Game of Thrones’ are “misremembered”: “We have a sense of desolation in our heads because of those big key moments where there’s chaos, but that’s the fun of the show, you never know who’s going to survive,” reported Agencia EFE.
Find out more at ‘QueOnnda.com’.
