GRRM Will Officially Knight Fans at LA ‘Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Premiere

George R.R. Martin is about to turn a few lucky fans into unofficial Westerosi knights. To celebrate HBO’s upcoming series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the author has launched a new #KnightChallenge contest that will culminate in Martin knighting fans live at the show’s Los Angeles Fan Premiere.

How the #KnightChallenge contest works

The contest, run in partnership with HBO ahead of the January 18, 2026 premiere, is searching for what Martin calls “modern day knights.” Fans in the U.S. can nominate someone they know by posting a short TikTok video that explains why their nominee embodies courage, honor, and self-sacrifice—all using the hashtag #KnightChallenge. The video can show the nominee in action or simply tell their story.

According to the announcement, select winners will be flown to Los Angeles for the fan premiere of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, where Martin himself will bestow a ceremonial knighthood. No armor is required; heartfelt deeds are. The contest is already live and closes at 12 p.m. ET on January 2, 2026, with full rules and details available on the official site at HBO’s Knight Challenge page.

Dunk & Egg step into HBO’s spotlight

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms adapts Martin’s beloved Dunk & Egg novellas, collected under the same title and set about a century before Game of Thrones. Season 1 will cover The Hedge Knight across six episodes, introducing Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) and his squire Aegon “Egg” Targaryen (Dexter Sol Ansell), in a more intimate, often funnier corner of Westeros than fans have seen on TV so far. The series’ softer, more humorous tone has already been teased as a contrast to the brutal politics of House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones itself, while still promising a bloody Trial of Seven and a new “mad” Targaryen, as seen in the final trailer covered by Entertainment Weekly.

If the first season lands, future installments are expected to adapt The Sworn Sword and The Mystery Knight, expanding this smaller-scale saga into HBO’s next long-running Westeros project down the line. HBO is confident enough that it has already moved ahead on additional seasons, with cameras rolling on Season 2 before Season 1 has even aired, as we’ve covered in our breakdown of the show’s early renewal in our Season 2 filming update.

Why book fans are paying attention

For longtime readers, the contest is more than just a bit of clever promotion. Dunk & Egg have long been some of Martin’s most cherished side characters, and HBO’s push around A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms signals how central this material is to the franchise’s future, a shift we’ve already seen with HBO leaning into a post-Targaryen era of spinoffs in our look at HBO’s new Westeros strategy.

It also arrives while Martin continues to juggle multiple TV projects and the long-anticipated novel The Winds of Winter, which still has no release date after more than a decade, as detailed in recent reporting from GamesRadar+. With A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms finally putting Dunk & Egg front and center on screen—and now offering fans a chance to be knighted by the author himself—2026 is shaping up to be one of the most active years in Westeros history, on the page and off.