HBO has long threatened to flood the market with scores of Game of Thrones spinoffs and prequels. So far they’ve done one. There’s allegedly a Jon Snow series in the offing. Last week, though, they announced they were finally doing a third. It’s called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. It’s a clunky title, to be sure, what with the double dose of “knight.” But it could have been worse, at least according to its creator, George R.R. Martin.
As per IndieWire, Martin took to his blog to share some details about the latest Song of Ice and Fire prequel. That included addressing the name.
“The working title will be ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight.’ Whether that will be the final title, I can’t say for sure… beyond saying that no, it won’t be called ‘Tales of Dunk & Egg’ or ‘The Adventures of Dunk & Egg’ or ‘Dunk & Egg’ or anything along those lines,” wrote Martin. “I love Dunk and I love Egg, and I know that fans refer to my novellas as ‘the Dunk & Egg stories,’ sure, but there are millions of people out there who do not know the stories and the title needs to intrigue them too. If you don’t know the characters, ‘Dunk & Egg’ sounds like a sitcom. ‘Laverne & Shirley.’ ‘Abbott & Costello.’ ‘Beavis & Butthead.’ So, no. We want ‘knight’ in the title. Knighthood and chivalry are central to the themes of these stories.”
Martin also begged fans to chill about how slowly it takes for these shows to go from rumor to completion.
“Way back in the summer of 2016, when HBO first started thinking about ‘Game of Thrones’ spinoffs, I pitched them two ideas: the ‘Dance of the Dragons,’ which in due time became ‘House of the Dragon’… and ‘Dunk & Egg’,” Martin wrote. “That was seven years ago. (I can hardly believe it myself). The lesson there is that development takes time. I see all these stories on the net about other spinoffs being killed or abandoned… no idea where they get this stuff… and it just makes me shake my head. The Nymeria show is still in development. So is the Sea Snake show. Just had a great week on that one, working with writers. And there are others, both live action and animated. How many will get the greenlight like Dunk & Egg? Impossible to say.”
There are three Dunk and Egg novellas, which are prequels to the events in the still-uncompleted Song of Ice and Fire saga, published between 1998 and 2010. They follow a squire, Dunk, who takes up the armor of the late knight for whom he squired. On his travels he adopts his own squire, name of Egg. Just as you have to patient for Martin’s next Ice/Fire doorstop, keep your cool while HBO writes, casts, and makes their next prequel.
(Via IndieWire)