Tom McCullagh and Stephanie Rea Discuss ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’

Bringing a quieter, grounded corner of Westeros to life presents a very different visual challenge than populating King’s Landing with towering fortresses or filling the sky with dragonfire. For production designer Tom McCullagh and set decorator Stephanie Rea, responsible for crafting the visual landscape of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, the key was preserving the grand spectacle of George R.R. Martin’s world while working within a distinctly different frame. Their work on the series has earned well-deserved industry recognition, picking up an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Production Design for a Narrative Program (Half-Hour) alongside art director John Merry.

Adapted from Martin’s beloved Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, the series follows the wandering hedge knight Ser Duncan the Tall (played by Peter Claffey) and his young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell) roughly a century before the events of Game of Thrones. Because the story takes place on the dusty roads and at local tourney grounds rather than inside royal council chambers, the design team had to build a version of Westeros that felt thoroughly lived-in, earthy, and immediate.

Big Tourneys on a Smaller Canvas

One of the primary challenges for the design department was ensuring that a story centred around a lower-stakes hedge knight did not feel stripped of scale or atmosphere. While the production ran on a tighter budget than its predecessor dragons-and-dynasties sagas, the creative approach was never to compromise on visual impact.

Reflecting on the philosophy behind the sets, McCullagh explained how they approached the balance:

“By no means did we try to scale it down because we were a much smaller production and had less money. It still had to have a wow factor to it, and I hope that was achieved in the jousting and the markets.”

That sense of ambition shines through in the layout of the tourney grounds, which serve as the backdrop for much of the first novella’s narrative. Rather than treating market stalls and side tents as mere background filler, the team treated every element as an anchor for world-building. McCullagh noted that key details were deliberately given pride of place on set:

“We wanted to kind of make the puppet show or the puppet tent like a feature of, of the grounds of the market area, even of the, of the jousting area.”

If you have read the original novellas, you will know just how vital that specific puppet show becomes to Dunk’s story at Ashford Meadow. Seeing those details treated with such narrative intent suggests a production team that truly understands the source material.

Battling the Elements

Creating an authentic, weathered physical environment required enduring actual weather conditions that were far from ideal. Dressing an sprawling exterior set designed to look like a bustling, sun-lit summer gathering in Westeros is a tricky task when real-world seasonal shifts arrive ahead of schedule.

Rea recalled the physically taxing start to dressing the outdoor environments for the show, noting that the timing brought its own set of hurdles for the crew:

“It was the end of winter when we were starting to dress and build those sets. It was tough on morale.”

Despite the freezing mud and bitter chill during construction, the finished environments successfully capture the charm and mud-splattered reality of Martin’s prose. The effort aligns with wider reports from the production; when George R.R. Martin was famously overwhelmed visiting the set, he praised how closely the physical layout matched what he had pictured in his head decades ago when writing the novellas.

A Fresh Perspective on Westeros

Now that initial production has wrapped and filming wrapped for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms on its debut run, the design work of McCullagh, Rea, and Merry stands out as a crucial element in setting the tone for this fresh era of television adaptations. It proves that Westeros does not need massive siege weapons or CGI castles to feel rich and immersive.

With HBO already considering plans for future seasons of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to adapt the subsequent novellas, the blueprint established by this design team sets a wonderful foundation. By focusing on practical textures, intricate market stalls, and regional detail, they have given Dunk and Egg a world that feels as real as the dirt beneath their boots.