HBO is plotting another return to Westeros.
The premium channel is developing a Tales of Dunk and Egg TV show, another Game of Thrones prequel which will be set in the fantasy world created by author George R.R. Martin. The characters of Ser Duncan the Tall (AKA Dunk) and Aegon Targaryen (AKA Egg) have been fan favorites for years, and now a show tracking their adventures is officially in the works.
According to Variety, a Tales of Dunk and Egg TV show is in early development at HBO, with no writer or talent attached to the project yet. The one hour series is based on a series of Martin’s novellas, which are set 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones and center on a 6’11’ squire named Duncan, who is knighted by his dying master and becomes a hedge knight, a wandering knight without a master – basically the Westerosi equivalent of a ronin. Early in his adventures, Ser Duncan meets up with a scrappy young bald boy nicknamed Egg, who wants to serve as Duncan’s squire and travel Westeros with him. It turns out that “Egg” is actually Aegon Targaryen, a prince and eventual king of Westeros – but the adventures in these stories take place long before either of them become significant figures in the kingdom.
When Game of Thrones was coming to an end and HBO announced that it would be developing spin-offs and other shows set in that universe, fans hoped a Dunk and Egg series would be among those announced, but it seems the rights were still held by Martin. Back in 2014, he wrote on his blog:
“There has been interest, yes, but the rights situation is complicated. Film and television rights to the characters and the three published Dunk & Egg stories remain with me at present… but HBO, when acquiring the rights to the SONG OF ICE & FIRE novels, also acquired film and television rights to the world of Westeros. So if we did Dunk & Egg with anyone else, we would need to remove all the references to House Targaryen, the Iron Throne, etc…not completely impossible, but certainly undesirable. Whereas if HBO decided they wanted to make a Dunk & Egg miniseries or TV movies, they’d first need to buy the stories. That’s a much more attractive proposition for all concerned, I think…but if it happens, it will happen years from now, not tomorrow, and not next week.”
Martin plans to continue writing more novellas about these characters, but so far, the Tales of Dunk and Egg consist of three novellas: 1998’s The Hedge Knight, 2003’s The Sworn Sword, and 2010’s The Mystery Knight. You can read them all in a single collection called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms that was published in 2015.
HBO’s first Game of Thrones prequel series, House of the Dragon, is slated to be released in 2022.
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