The television show I'm most enjoying right now: There is a Hollywood story in David Niven's autobiography Bring on the Empty Horses, in which the screenwriter Charles MacArthur asks Charlie Chaplin how to make the comic pratfall scene of a person slipping on a banana peel new again. Chaplin suggests that MacArthur start with a lady walking down the street and cut to a shot of the banana peel on the sidewalk, which the lady steps over-right before she falls down a manhole.
Speaking of the Seven: Before Baelor saddles up, Dunk finds himself in a bit of hot water. Egg-which, as we now know, is short for Aegon-may have prevented the hedge knight from getting his teeth knocked in, but he's still in deep with Egg's brother Aerion, who is not one to forgive a slight. Aerion is also, however, not one for a fair fight, even against so mockable an opponent as Ser Duncan the Tall.
After two episodes of watching Dunk just try and get his name in contention for a tourney, Episode 3 brought Dunk and Egg face to face with Aerion Targaryen, the cruelest of the family members living at that time. That episode taught us two things: first, Egg is actually Aegon Targaryen, the youngest brother of Aerion, and second, Dunk has really pissed off Aerion, and that's not a good sign for his future.
But A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a different show than Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon- lighter and more comedic, yes, but also more concerned with the stories of everyday townsfolk than of kings and queens. One of those townsfolk in Ashford, where Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) has arrived to partake in a tourney, is Tanselle (Tanzyn Crawford), a Dornish puppeteer who entertains competitors - and catches Dunk's eye - with her vivid storytelling.
"What was so beautifully done about House of the Dragon is this epic scale at which the story is told. So to have this big booming orchestral score was very important," Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker says during a roundtable interview. However, for his series, "we realized early on that we're telling a small story here - a small story about a simple person who has smaller ambitions. And so, certainly our sound had to suit that."
When a franchise goes big, you have two choices for what to do next. You can zoom out and reveal the wider context of the original story, or you can zoom in and spotlight a story that has lower stakes. This latter approach is high-risk, high-reward, but it could serve to completely redefine the entire property. Take, for example, the DC Universe.
The series, which follows the trials and tribulations of a hedge knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, takes place almost 100 years prior to the events of A Game of Thrones and will be told across six, half-hour episodes. The show is set in the time of Targaryen rule, with 'Dunk' and his diminutive square 'Egg' seeking knighthood in a world of danger and intrigue-and more jokes, by the looks of things.
HBO went on a green-lighting spree Thursday, Nov. 20th, announcing renewals for multiple series. Perhaps the most exciting for those who like to make things weird: The Tim Robinson-starring The Chair Company, created by Robinson and Zach Kanin, has been renewed for a second season, meaning that the mystery Ron Trosper is trying to solve in the first season may go deeper than we realize.
Bloys specifically mentioned A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the upcoming adaptation of George R. R. Martin's relatively lighthearted Tales of Dunk and Egg stories, starring former rugby player Peter Claffey as Ser Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell as his Targaryen squire Aegon, aka Egg. That spinoff was announced in 2021 and wrapped filming in September 2024, but since then, the release window has moved from "late 2025" to the much more vague "2026."
