Should HBO's A Knight of the 7 Kingdoms have been a feature film instead?

[Billy]

‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’: ‘Game Of Thrones’ Prequel Storms Into NYCC With First Trailer – Watch

The first trailer just dropped for HBO's second Game of Thrones prequel series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, coming to HBO in January 2026.

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I'm personally excited about the adventures of Egg and Ser Duncan the Tall. I actually think this show is the perfect bridge between House of the Dragon and Game of Thrones since it is set right in the middle of both. However, there are just too many changes with this one. First, the run time for each episode is just 30 minutes, with only 6 episodes in the first season which is just 3 hours of watch time. Surely, the attraction to the Game of Thrones world is the ability to binge, and 30 minutes just isn't long enough.

The brutality of life in Westeros is still on Display, but A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms really is just a comedy, so it doesn't bring out the same high stakes as its predecessors. I'm not sure three seasons, with that little time, will really bring out the level of transformation Egg undergoes before becoming a king. With so much likely to be lost, I think all these would have been perfectly wrapped in a film trilogy. Just imagine three feature-length films of Dunk and Egg traversing Westeros before he becomes king. That would have been HBO's LOTR right there

 

[CiderHype]

I get where you’re coming from. At 30 minutes a piece it does feel more like a long movie chopped up than a “proper” Thrones-style season. Dunk & Egg also has a natural beginning–middle–end arc that could fit the film model cleanly.

That said, I don’t mind it as a series if they actually use the short format well, smaller stories, tighter character beats, not trying to be another high-stakes war epic. If they stretch it thin across 3 seasons without real depth, then yeah, a film trilogy probably would’ve been the better play.

Right now it could go either way, depends on whether HBO actually commits to the character work instead of just banking on the IP.