When we were first introduced to Ser Duncan the Tall, he didn’t even go by that name yet—he was just a newly minted hedge knight dealing with the aftermath of burying his former master. Over the course of Season 1’s six episodes, though, we watched him meet the young Egg, land himself in hot water for standing up for the innocent, discover Egg’s real identity, confront royalty in a Trial of Seven, and finally hit the road with Aegon—much to Prince Maekar’s annoyance.
Yet even before the season premiered, HBO greenlit a second season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. So what’s next for the show? If it stays true to adapting the Dunk and Egg novellas, the upcoming season will focus on a more low-key period in Dunk’s life—though it’s no less significant.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 and the Dunk and Egg novella The Sworn Sword.
Season 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms drew from the first Dunk and Egg book, The Hedge Knight—and, as the title suggests, it tracked Dunk as he launched his career as a freelance knight. The second book, The Sworn Sword, adheres to the same naming pattern. Roughly a year and a half after the first book’s events, Dunk and Egg have made their home in Standfast in the Reach, having spent some time in Dorne beforehand.
Ser Duncan is now in the service of Eustace Osgrey, a down-on-his-luck knight grieving the loss of his family and his noble status. The book begins with Dunk and Egg coming back from a short errand to fetch wine, only to find the local stream has dried up—a perilous situation amid a severe drought. Dunk, Egg, and fellow hedge knight Ser Bennis of the Brown Shield have to go out and talk things over with Lady Rohanne Webber, a formidable woman nicknamed the Red Widow because so many of her husbands have died.
But when Dunk meets Lady Rohanne, he discovers she’s not a scheming old widow but a lovely young woman. He has to put his feelings for her aside to resolve the conflict between her house and Ser Eustace’s—a conflict that culminates in a risky, violent duel.
Plenty of fans are curious about how the show will bring Lady Rohanne Webber to life, but we might already have a clue about her on-screen appearance. Rumors are circulating that Sing Street and Bohemian Rhapsody star Lucy Boynton will play the role. While it’s tough to draw conclusions from the casting, it’s notable that at 5’5”, she’s a whole foot shorter than Peter Claffey’s Dunk.
Even though this story might be more intimate than Season 1’s, it still carries significant weight in the larger lore. According to the book canon, Lady Rohanne’s sixth and final marriage is to Gerold Lannister, the lord of Casterly Rock. With Gerold, she had four sons—one of whom is Tytos, the father of Game of Thrones’ Tywin Lannister. That makes her the great-grandmother of Cersei, Jaime, and Tyrion, just as Egg is the great-grandfather of Daenerys and Robert Baratheon.
Once Season 2 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms wraps up, two out of the three existing Dunk and Egg books will have been adapted—but don’t fret. Showrunner Ira Parker says George R. R. Martin has given him a dozen more outlined stories for the pair. In fact, Parker has an ambitious vision for the show’s future: “I want to do four or five seasons now with Egg as a child,” he shared. “Then, in ten years, I want to return and do another four or five seasons with Egg as a prince—using the actual Dexter [Ansell] and Peter [Claffey], at whatever age they are then. Then, ten years after that, we’ll come back and do Egg as an adult.”
Parker admitted that when he presented these ideas to HBO, there were “a couple of very polite eye rolls”—but if Season 2 gets the same positive fan reaction as Season 1, the show might have the staying power to turn that plan into reality.
Season 1 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is currently available to stream on HBO Max.