HBO Eyeing At Least a 3-Season Run for "Game of Thrones’" Prequel Series "Hedge Knight"

HBO Drama Chief Francesca Orsi shared an update on the “Game of Thrones” prequel based on George R.R. Martin’s “Dunk and Egg” books.

In an interview with Deadline, Orsi stated that the network doesn’t have a scheduling plan yet for how The Hedge Knight would run alongside House Of the Dragon but the two are on different production tracks.

“The plan is more of a creative one in that much of the reasoning behind it is that it has a smaller canvas, that there’s an intimacy to the visual canvas that allows us to generate the show faster than say House of the Dragon might turn around because there’s so much VFX,” she said.

Orsi continued: “You may know based on the novellas that dragons don’t exist so by virtue of that it will be a faster piece to turn around given that we don’t have all these visual effect assets needing to deliver,”.

As to how long the series is envisioned to run, “ideally year-to-year and arcing out a three-season series, which maps out the three novellas that George wrote,” Orsi said. 

“Of course, we’d like more beyond that, and George is continuing to think about the remaining novellas that he still wants to write but at this point, we have our eye on three seasons that would map out each book, each novella.”

HBO on April 12 announced a series order to "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Night". 

The project is based on the series of fantasy novellas by Martin and follows the adventures of Ser Duncan the Tall (Dunk) and a young Aegon V Targaryen (Egg) 90 years before the events of “A Song of Ice and Fire.”

The series takes place a century before the events of "Game of Thrones", and is centered around two unlikely heroes wandering Westeros… a young, naïve but courageous knight, Ser Duncan the Tall, and his diminutive squire, Egg.

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, great destinies, powerful foes, and dangerous exploits all await these improbable and incomparable friends.

Martin will serve as writer and executive producer, as will as Ira Parker, who was a co-executive producer on Season 1 of “House of the Dragon.” “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon” vets Ryan Condal and Vince Gerardis will serve as executive producers.

Martin has published three novellas in the “Tales of Dunk and Egg” series to date: “The Hedge Knight” in 1998, “The Sworn Sword” in 2003, and “The Mystery Knight” in 2010.

The novellas were collected and published together as “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” in 2015.

This is the latest Westeros-based project at HBO. Following the global success of “Game of Thrones,” the premium cabler moved to develop a number of series set in the world created by Martin. Of the numerous projects announced as being in development over the years, the only other one to move forward before this has been “House of the Dragon”.