‘Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Season 2 Starts Filming This Month

Westeros is heading back to set. HBO’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on George R.R. Martin’s beloved Tales of Dunk and Egg, will begin filming Season 2 in Belfast, Ireland this month—before Season 1 has even aired. The first season is set to premiere on January 18, 2026, with Season 2 currently eyed for a 2027 debut.

The fast turnaround is a clear signal that HBO sees long-term potential in this quieter corner of Westeros, doubling down on the prequel even as House of the Dragon continues its own run and the network develops other spinoffs and sequels across the Game of Thrones universe.

A Smaller Story With Big Hopes

Set roughly a century before Game of Thrones, the new series follows Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), an unpolished hedge knight from “the ass-end sh*thole of Westeros,” and his bald young squire Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), who book readers know is secretly Aegon Targaryen. The first season adapts The Hedge Knight, the earliest of Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas, a cycle he’s outlined to run as many as nine stories in total, with The Village Hero planned as a future installment.[1]

Showrunner Ira Parker has described a notably different tone from the bloody Shakespearean tragedy of House of the Dragon. Early episodes lean into character comedy and warmth as events unfold through Egg’s wide-eyed perspective, before the inevitable Westerosi brutality kicks in. The production is also deliberately scaled down, with a more modest budget and a focus on intimate conflicts instead of dragon warfare.

Martin himself has already seen all six Season 1 episodes and called the adaptation one of his “favorites,” praising its faithfulness to the spirit of the novellas and its focus on honor, chivalry, and moral choices over spectacle.[2] HBO previously confirmed an early Season 2 order, positioning the series as a key plank in its post-Targaryen era strategy for the franchise.[3]

The filming news landed alongside the final trailer, which fills out the ensemble around Claffey and Ansell: Daniel Ings as Ser Lyonel Baratheon, Bertie Carvel as Baelor Targaryen, Danny Webb as Ser Arlan of Pennytree and Sam Spruell as Maekar Targaryen, per Collider. Warner Bros. Discovery has confirmed the January 18 premiere and a 2027 second season in its own press release, part of a plan to keep a Westeros series on air every year through 2028.

Parker has been just as plain about the scale. Speaking at an HBO Max event in London, he described a stripped-back visual style and a deliberately modest budget built around Dunk’s point of view, down to dropping the traditional opening title sequence. Early trailers centre on a trial of seven, a volatile Targaryen prince, and a knight well out of his depth.

Westeros Grows While the Books Wait

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is only one piece of a sprawling slate. HBO continues to expand with House of the Dragon, renewed through Season 4,[4] and an Aegon’s Conquest prequel in development, while Martin juggles TV projects, new books like Fire & Blood follow-ups, and even a mythological animated film.[5]

All of this activity has only sharpened fan frustration over the long-delayed The Winds of Winter, which Martin has admitted is still unfinished after more than a decade of work.[6] Recent comments and legal filings have repeatedly confirmed the manuscript remains in progress, even as adaptations like new TV takes on his earlier novels move forward.

For book readers, the new filming update cements Dunk and Egg as more than side lore. With Season 2 cameras about to roll, these novellas are becoming a core pillar of onscreen Westeros—even as readers keep one eye on Belfast and the other on Martin’s writing desk, waiting for the day Winds finally arrives.