Dexter Sol Ansell, Peter Claffey in 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.' Steffan Hill/HBO Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Logo text A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a different kind of Game of Thrones show, and Ira Parker is a different kind of Thrones-verse showrunner. As you've probably heard, the new HBO drama series tells the story of a penniless wandering "hedge knight," Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey), and his 10-year-old squire with a secret, nicknamed Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell), as they enter a jousting tournament to try and improve their fortunes. The series doesn't have magic, dragons or big battles. The tone is lighter than the original show or House of the Dragon. Also, at just six episodes, the season is quite short - and goes by faster than you might think as many episodes are less than 40 minutes long. Related Stories TV Steve Coogan, Caleb Jonte Edwards Join 'White Lotus' Season 4 Cast TV John Oliver Says Warner Bros. Acquisition "Very Hard to Justify Legally," But "We're Not Going to Change" Parker's credits include the first season of House of the Dragon and Better Things. He comes across like a massive fan of George R.R Martin's fantasy world who feels humbled and fortunate to have gotten the keys to HBO's next Westeros kingdom - and really doesn't want to muck it up. The resulting show is a real charmer (read The Hollywood Reporter's review) and a slow burn. Unless you've read series co-creator Martin's novella The Hedge Knight, you're not going to know how its assortment of characters and story threads relate to one another. But at a certain point along the way, the story elements suddenly come rushing together and the result is thrilling. "We're not throwing a kid out of a window in the very first episode," Parker says. "But just, like, give us a second." THR spoke to Parker for this week's cover story profile of Martin. Below is a more expanded version of some of his spoiler-free comments about the show - and how he knows of 12 secret Dunk and Egg tales for potential future seasons. When you pitched your vision for this to HBO, what did you say that you think helped get you the gig? Aside from, presumably, "It won't be expensive." I actually don't think I pitched for this. They just gave it to me. [HBO drama head Francesca Orsi] sent me a text or email at four o'clock in the morning: "What do you think about Dunk and Egg?" And I spent a week just getting everything together. I had 15 pages of things that I was going to pitch to them and have this big, long conversation. Then when I got on the phone with them and realized I already had the job. I just immediately shut my mouth. The biggest thing that was very helpful was learning the show didn't have to be 10 episodes, one hour each. Being able to do six episodes, anywhere between 30 or 40 minutes, was perfect for us. It meant we didn't have to stretch the story. It meant that we could do a faithful adaptation of this - which obviously is very much what George wanted, and what I was very keen to deliver one because I'm a big fan of these novellas. This way, the stuff we did add doesn't feel tangential. It feels like it's filling out these novellas in a way that hopefully George would have done if he had just written them as novels instead of 80-page nuggets. It feels like just the right length. What kind of insight did George give along the way that was valuable? First, just having George be available whenever you need him is very helpful. He and I had a lot of conversations early on. I spent a weekend in Santa Fe with George when HBO had brought this up to just have a conversation and see how he feels about all this. After that went well, I came back for a full week. Yes, George puts together these writer summits for all the potential shows. Yeah it's George and some of his favorite authors. We spent some time together, just breaking it all out and throwing ideas around. It was one of the most fun, creative weeks I've ever had in my whole career. Then I went away to write the pilot and George was there any every step of the way. He was very supportive and he read the first drafts of every episode, and he gave me pretty timely feedback - he didn't pull any punches. He was always very open to conversations. In my very first meeting with George, even before I officially had the job, I promised him I wouldn't put anything in that he didn't want. But it's never come to that. He's pushed back on a lot of things. I just explained the reason why I wanted to do something, and then he would explain his reasons why I'm an idiot. So the first season had a modest budget for a Thrones show. Do you think with season two - based on Martin's second Dunk and Egg novella, The Sworn Sword - you'll be allowed to expand the scope a bit more? Will it still be six