House of the Dragon Season 2 finally arriving on HBO in the 2024 TV schedule has made Targaryens all the rage all over again, and HBO has now confirmed some castings for even more members of the Targaryen family tree beyond the events of HOTD. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will be much closer in the timeline to Game of Thrones than House of the Dragon is, and we can likely except some familiar sights... but not one particular element of the original show: dragons.
The next spinoff set in the world of Westeros received its title just over a year ago, with George R.R. Martin announcing that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms would be based on his Dunk and Egg novellas. In the months since, Peter Claffey of Wreck and Dexter Sol Ansell of The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes were announced as playing Dunk and Egg – a.k.a. Ser Duncan the Tall and Aegon Targaryen – respectively. Now, along with releasing the above first look at Claffey as Dunk, HBO confirmed these additional Targaryen castings:
- Finn Bennett (True Detective) as Aerion Targaryen
- Bertie Carvel (The Crown) as Baelor Targaryen
- Sam Spruell (Fargo) as Maekar Targaryen
Also joining the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms cast are Daniel Ings (Sex Education) as Ser Lyonel Baratheon and Tanzyn Crawford (Tiny Beautiful Things) as Tanselle. It's no surprise that casting announcements are finally happening beyond the two leads, as HBO has also confirmed that production began on the new show in Belfast, Ireland.
That in itself feels like a throwback to Game of Thrones, if you ask me, as that series often filmed in Northern Ireland. In fact, the infamous coffee cup that made it into GOT's final season was from a Belfast-owned store instead of Starbucks. The events of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will also take place chronologically a lot closer to Thrones than House of the Dragon. The newest installment in HBO's expanding world of Westeros will be set just a century before the War of the Five Kings, whereas House of the Dragon is set nearly 200 years back.
That said, for as much as fans of George R.R. Martin's universe may have come to associate Game of Thrones with dragons, nobody should go into the series expecting to see any of the magical creatures. According HBO's description, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set "in an age when the Targaryen line still holds the Iron Throne, and the memory of the last dragon has not yet passed from living memory."
So, the dragons in House of the Dragon fighting for the Greens or Blacks won't be around by the time of Dunk and Egg, and Dany's dragons will still be a century away from hatching. There will be metaphorical dragons with the Targaryen dynasty still going strong, but literal dragons won't have a part to play. The focus on the show will be on the brave but naive Ser Duncan and his young squire, Aegon. The pair will have all manner of adventures without requiring any fire-breathing creatures on hand, and the first season is an adaptation of George R.R. Martin's "The Hedge Knight" novella.
As of February, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was expected to premiere in late 2025, so there's still a long wait ahead. It remains to be seen if George R.R. Martin will have published The Winds of Winter in the interim after his recent comments. For now, you can always revisit every episode of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon so far streaming with a Max subscription.
