We don’t hang onto every word that comes from George R. R. Martin. From his novels yes, from his blog, no. But since we haven’t mentioned A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS, the new forthcoming work from the GoT-verse, in a while, we thought we’d share what he had to say about it recently.
Straight from his Not A Blog blog, where he ruminates on all things that interest him. R. R. Martin had a couple of paragraphs of a longer missive about the show. The crux of it is that he has seen rough cuts and likes what he sees. We let him tell it. He writes –
“It’s done. Ira and his team wrapped the first season months ago and moved right on to post-production. I’ve seen all six episodes now (the last two in rough cuts, admittedly), and I loved them. Dunk and Egg have always been favorites of mine, and the actors we found to portray them are just incredible. The rest of the cast are terrific as well. Wait until you guys meet the Laughing Storm. and Tanselle Too-Tall.
A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS is an adaptation of “The Hedge Knight,” the first of the novellas I wrote about them. It’s as faithful as adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for (and you all know how incredibly reasonable I am on that particular subject). Viewers who are looking for action, and more action, and only action… well, this one may not satisfy you. There’s a huge fight scene here, as exciting as anyone could ask for, but there are no dragons this time around, no huge battles, no white walkers… this is a character piece, and its focus is on duty and honor, on chivalry and all it means. “The Hedge Knight” was published between A GAME OF THRONES and A CLASH OF KINGS in Robert Silverberg’s epic anthology LEGENDS, and was so popular that it brought tens of thousands of new readers to Westeros. Sales of my novels were much higher after LEGENDS than before, and for that I credit Silverbob, and Anne Groell, and Dunk and Egg. This one ranks as one of the best stories I’ve ever written, and I am so so so pleased that Ira Parker, Ti Mikkel, Aziza Barnes (may they rest in peace), Owen Harris, and our astonishing cast and crew did right by them.
The series will make its debut late this year, I am now told. How late, I could not say. Maybe in the fall.
I hope you will love the show as much as I do.
A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS is an adaptation of “The Hedge Knight,” the first of the novellas I wrote about them. It’s as faithful as adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for (and you all know how incredibly reasonable I am on that particular subject). Viewers who are looking for action, and more action, and only action… well, this one may not satisfy you. There’s a huge fight scene here, as exciting as anyone could ask for, but there are no dragons this time around, no huge battles, no white walkers… this is a character piece, and its focus is on duty and honor, on chivalry and all it means. “The Hedge Knight” was published between A GAME OF THRONES and A CLASH OF KINGS in Robert Silverberg’s epic anthology LEGENDS, and was so popular that it brought tens of thousands of new readers to Westeros. Sales of my novels were much higher after LEGENDS than before, and for that I credit Silverbob, and Anne Groell, and Dunk and Egg. This one ranks as one of the best stories I’ve ever written, and I am so so so pleased that Ira Parker, Ti Mikkel, Aziza Barnes (may they rest in peace), Owen Harris, and our astonishing cast and crew did right by them.Now, R.R. Martin has been known to be critical of the treatments given his work in the past. If he says that A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS is a good representation of Dunk & Egg then it must be so. Note that he does not only like Peter Claffey & Dexter Sol Ansell as the title characters but calls out specifically the characters of The Laughing Storm and Tanselle Too-Tall who will be personified by Daniel Ings and Tanzyn Crawford, respectively; performances we can now look forward to seeing.
We hope for a Teaser soon, yeah?
