House of the Dragon is currently on hiatus as the very first Game of Thrones spinoff and not expected to return to HBO with Season 2 until 2024, but the Game of Thrones fantasy franchise is still expanding. The network has handed down a series order for a TV adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s novellas about Ser Duncan the Tall and Egg, a.k.a. Dunk and Egg. Now, the author has opened up with some details about the new project – including an explanation of the name – and name-dropped The Winds of Winter in his update.
The Title Of The Dunk And Egg Spinoff
Whenever a prequel series centered on these two characters has been discussed, it has generally been with the assumed title of some variation of Dunk & Egg, but HBO’s announcement on April 12 about the series gave the title as A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Just a couple of days later, George R.R. Martin opened up about the project, saying that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight is actually the working title, and could change... but not to something including the character names.
The Hedge Knight part of the title is easy enough to explain, as that is the title of the first of Martin’s three novellas so far. But why A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms as the working title instead of mentioning Dunk and Egg? Martin explained on his Not A Blog website:
I love Dunk and I love Egg, and I know that fans refer to my novellas as ‘the Dunk & Egg stories,’ sure, but there are millions of people out there who do not know the stories and the title needs to intrigue them too. If you don’t know the characters, DUNK & EGG sounds like a sitcom. LAVERNE & SHIRLEY. ABBOTT & COSTELLO. BEAVIS & BUTTHEAD. So, no. We want ‘knight’ in the title. Knighthood and chivalry are central to the themes of these stories.
The name choice omitting “Dunk & Egg” isn’t altogether shocking, as both of the other Westeros-set series on HBO changed their names from the books they’re based on. After all, the novel saga that inspired Game of Thrones is called A Song of Ice & Fire, and A Game of Thrones is simply the title of the first book. House of the Dragon is based on the fictional history book of the Targaryens called Fire & Blood.
Martin admitted that there’s not much else that he can say about the project other than to confirm the series order rather than pilot order, and share that it will likely run for six episodes, but that isn’t guaranteed yet. The first season will cover the events of The Hedge Knight as the first novella, and the pilot was penned by Ira Parker, who wrote the memorable fourth episode of House of the Dragon that involved Daemon and Rhaenyra’s trip to the brothel. Martin himself and HOTD showrunner Ryan Condal are on board as executive producers.
He also shared that although there’s no production start date, writing is “well underway.” HBO’s initial announcement of Knight of the Seven Kingdoms credits Martin as a writer and executive producer, which is notable in light of the author’s statement back before House of the Dragon that he would not be writing any scripts until he finished and delivered Winds of Winter as the long-awaited sixth book in A Song of Ice & Fire. Apparently something changed since he made that statement in 2019 – and/or saying that he wouldn’t write any scripts only applied to HOTD – so what is the latest on the novel?
The Latest Word On The Winds Of Winter
Unfortunately, George R.R. Martin didn’t have much to say about The Winds of Winter, which fans have been waiting for since A Dance with Dragons was published in 2011 as the fifth book of A Song of Ice & Fire. The author has given various updates over the years, including one in 2015 about wanting to finish the book by 2016. In his new blog post about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, he mentioned having more novellas for Dunk & Egg planned to write, but that doesn’t mean prioritizing them over Winds of Winter. He wrote:
I just need to finish THE WINDS OF WINTER, and then do either A DREAM OF SPRING or volume two of FIRE & BLOOD, and slip in a new Dunk & Egg between each of those in my copious spare time.
Well, at least we know that when it comes to his books and novellas, Winds of Winter still has priority over the second volume of Fire & Blood and any more of the Dunk & Egg stories! I can imagine that A Dream of Spring – a.k.a. the seventh book of A Song of Ice & Fire – is quite a ways off, but I’d be happy just to get Winds of Winter at this point, on principle. Another dragon-filled TV spinoff is reportedly being discussed, but I’d rather get the sixth book at this point.
For now, fans of the world of Westeros can always check out George R.R. Martin’s novellas centered on Dunk & Egg, the five books of ASOIAF so far, and/or the first volume of Fire & Blood, which I would suggest doing ahead of House of the Dragon Season 2 if you don’t mind broad spoilers, as there are some epic moments from the book that are likely on the way in Season 2. And of course, you can revisit Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon streaming with an HBO Max subscription.
