The newest Game of Thrones spinoff series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, is almost here. This fun new outing into Westeros will be unlike any we’ve ever seen before, featuring the delightful, odd-couple duo of Dunk and Egg, a knight who is just trying to survive and his hopeful squire. Nerdist, alongside other press, recently had the opportunity to chat with the stars of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms themselves, Peter Claffey, who plays Ser Duncan the Tall, and Dexter Sol Ansell, who plays his squire, Egg. And the pair filled us in on everything we can expect and anticipate in our next return to Westeros.
The first question on the table was how the lighter, more comedic A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms series would fit in with the rest of Game of Thrones much darker world. Peter Claffey revealed that everything in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms feels earned and establishes itself in a believable way.
Claffey shared, “The comedic aspects of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms are, they’re earned kind of, towards the start. And for any fans that are nervous about that side of things, it all works. I, too, was wondering and self-conscious about whether I was going to deliver these lighter things in such a serious world. And it does work in the end, and you still get your political conflict, your gory violence, and all these things as well. But I think the actual characters of Duncan and Egg lend themselves to a sort of a comedic thing. So it was kind of easy to do towards the end, really. We found it sort of a sweet spot with it.”
That sounds delightful to us, and it’s not all fun and games in Dunk and Egg’s world. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is still a Game of Thrones show. Dexter Sol Ansell opined, “It’s definitely, I think, the lighter version of Game of Thrones, though I haven’t watched it, but it’s probably the most disturbing thing I’ve been in. It’s not pitch-perfect happy.”
And attaining the balance between comedy and darkness was very important to everyone involved in the new Game of Thrones series. Claffey revealed of making the character of Dunk feel real and believable in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “It goes back to the comedic beats. It’s like you can’t overdo them because you’re in the world of Game of Thrones. It’s like if they’re overdone, it just completely takes you out of it and it completely, it’s just not authentic to the world. So it was trying to find that really sort of whisper and quietness of comedy, and not overdoing things.”
Claffey gives us the following example of iterating Dunk while creating A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: “There were a couple of times where I was like… he hits his head quite a lot in the first one, which is funny. And then I was like, there were a couple of times when we were filming different things in the episode. And then Owen Harris, Ira Parker, and I were kind of like, ‘I think that’s probably too many head hits. We’re probably overdoing that,’ and pulled it back. It was trying to have that appreciation of it but not overdoing things. And that contributed to giving him that sort of organic feel that he’s actually real character.”
We love the idea of a whisper of comedy in a tumultuous world. And tumultuous, it certainly is. Even though A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is funnier and lighter than Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, there’s still major action. Claffey shares of what we can expect from the epic clashes we’ll see on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, “and we had an immense second unit, the best stunt team I’ve ever seen in my life. They were amazing because all of that you’re going to see is incredible.” Yes, so much of the action you’ll see on A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is practical, put together by stuntmen and brilliant prop masters.
And Claffey adds, speaking of a particularly epic sequence Dunk participates in that Dunk & Egg book fans might be able to guess, “I remember having to come out and do the bits that I had to do as well after filming in the studio. And we were complaining about the little bit of temperature in the studio, and it was like, ‘God, coffee’s not here yet.’ And then we come out, and these stunt men have spent three weeks outside, covered in wasps and just completely exhausted. They are the heroes of this for all that jousting stuff, and especially the Devil’s Horsemen have to be commemorated as well. Some of the practical effects and some of the things that really happened on horses with all this different stunt equipment, it’s beyond belief. And as well as that, the props guys as well. People really worked hard.”
In the end, a lot of intense work went into creating A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, although the result is seamless. Dexter Sol Ansell offers, “My most challenging scene was definitely at the beginning of the fourth episode of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. There was this massive scene, there was this massive scene, and I’m not going to say where it is, but there’s this big emotional scene. It’s not a twist, but it’s a very big emotional scene, and there’s so much stuff that’s put into that. And it was so hard. It was so hard to do and accomplish. And the amazing director, Sarah Dean Smith, I couldn’t have done it without her. She really helped me in that scene, get that emotional stuff out.”
And the truth is, it’s just not easy being an honest knight in Game of Thrones‘ world. Peter Claffey shares of Dunk’s journey in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. “In Game of Thrones and in George R.R. Martin’s world, people get so far in positions and status and stuff by doing hideous things and being part of and stabbing people in the back, literally, figuratively. And with, for example, the glorious trilogy that is The Lord of the Rings, you see so much more honor there, other than we’re talking Morgoth and Sauron, other than those pure evil beings, it’s a lot more of that sort of fairytale evil, that sort of thing. So, navigating trying to be a decent knight like Dunk, a knight with some status, must be a truly difficult thing.”
But ultimately, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has it all—Claffey concludes of his turn as Dunk, “You’ve an opportunity to play so many different themes and emotions and stuff. So it’s almost like the dream come true for an actor to be able to do all these different things.” And Dexter Sol Ansell shares the same, “That’s what’s great about this story because you go to so many different emotions, and like Peter is saying, it’s a dream for an actor.”
HBO’s newest Game of Thrones spinoff series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, releases on January 18, 2026.