The latest Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres on January 18, 2026, but the series is already facing a big problem: George R.R. Martin has only written three Dunk and Egg books. Unlike Game of Thrones which had five books of story to work with before David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were forced to go off of George R.R. Martin's outlines for The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will catch up to its source material at the end of Season 3.
George R.R. Martin Reveals He’ll Write More Game of Thrones Stories ‘If I Have The Time’
GRRM confirmed "there’s more stories to tell about Dunk and Egg, and their education, and what’s going to befall them in future years."
Fortunately, George R.R. Martin is not leaving Ira Parker stranded. In an interview with The National, Ira Parker confirmed that Martin has outlined the entirety of the Tales of Dunk and Egg's story for A Knight of the Seven Kingdom's writing team. "[Martin]has shared with me about 10 to 12 more little outlines for books, for novellas, taking Dunk and Egg all the way through their life." Parker continues, "Right now, we’re focused on one, and we’ll see how the world responds to that. We’re making two at the moment... Hopefully, everybody likes it and we get to keep doing these. Certainly, I love doing it. I love writing in this world, and it’s a wonderful story. So, I hope we get to make as many of these as possible."
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Has Enough Notes To Air For 10 to 12 Seasons
Like Game of Thrones before it, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is adopting a book per season mentality. Game of Thrones went a little off-script with this idea – adapting A Storm of Swords between Seasons 3 and 4, combining A Feast for Crows & A Dance with Dragons for Season 5, and working exclusively off outlines for Seasons 6, 7, and 8 – but there's no real reason for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to stray the course. It's been confirmed that every season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will be six episodes long and adapt one novella each.
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By Season 4, however, A Knight of the Seven Kingdom's writing team will be left with no books to work with. George R.R. Martin's new outlines will at least point the story in the right direction. Instead of ending the series with The Mystery Knight, A Knight of the Seven Kingdom's can follow Duncan the Tall's journey into becoming Lord Commander of the Kingsguard (as revealed in Game of Thrones), and eventually the Tragedy at Summerhall, which will realistically serve as the ending to his and Egg's story.
Outlines Did Game of Thrones Last Three Seasons No Favors
As exciting as it is to know that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms won't need to end with Season 3, it's important to remember that outlines can only take a story so far. Part of the reason the best seasons of George R.R. Martin's adaptations work so well is because of the way his dialogue and cinematic prose translates onto the screen. Game of Thrones had outlines to work with for its final three seasons, which are widely considered to be the most controversial seasons in the show's history.
Despite being critically acclaimed and a genuinely gripping season of television, Game of Thrones Season 6 has a lot of logistical problems and takes narrative shortcuts to get to where it needs to go. There's no reason Davos would ask Melisandra to revive Jon Snow given his hatred of shadow magic, for example. Conversations also become much shorter, cutting away from the scene sooner, whereas later seasons would have lingered on dialogue for longer. Actions likewise stop having logical consequences, like there being no political fallout to Cersei wiping out the Tyrells and an entire religion.
Everything that happens in the last three seasons of Game of Thrones makes sense on paper – even Mad Queen Dany and Jaime going back to Cersei – but the lack of dialogue and internal character motivation to adapt from GRRM meant that Game of Thrones couldn't properly bridge its main story beats together anymore. Ira Parker will certainly prove to be a very different showrunner than Benioff & Weiss, so there's still hope Seasons 4 through 12 of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms won't run into the same issues (especially if each season makes the most of its six episodes), but history has already proven to A Song of Ice and Fire fans that outlines aren't enough.
George R.R. Martin Refuses To Write More Tales of Dunk and Egg Until The Winds of Winter is Finished
One way or another, A Knight of the Seven Kingdom's team is stuck with outlines until George R.R. Martin finishes writing The Winds of Winter. The highly anticipated sixth book in A Song of Ice and Fire, George R.R. Martin has been working on The Winds of Winter for nearly 15 years now and it's no closer to being published. Martin has confirmed multiple times in the past that he will not write any more stories in the ASOIAF universe until The Winds of Winter is complete, and that includes the fourth Dunk and Egg novella.
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The next Dunk and Egg title was set to be The She-Wolves of Winterfell, a story set in the North focusing on the Stark family. This would be a prime opportunity for George R.R. Martin to start building up the White Walkers as a threat, especially since House of the Dragon doubled down on the Targaryens having a knowledge of the Long Night in the Season 2 finale. Sadly, the novella remains shelved until The Winds of Winter hits book shelves.
- Release Date
- January 25, 2026
- Network
- HBO
- Showrunner
- Ira Parker
- Directors
- Owen Harris
- Writers
- George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker
WHERE TO WATCH
- Cast
- Peter Claffey, Dexter Sol Ansell, Daniel Ings, Henry Ashton, Edward Ashley, Shaun Thomas, Sam Spruell, Finn Bennett, Bertie Carvel, Ross Anderson, Danny Collins, Daniel Monks, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Carla Harrison-Hodge, Jenna Boyd, Danny Webb, Tanzyn Crawford
- Franchise(s)
- Game of Thrones
- Creator(s)
- George R. R. Martin, Ira Parker
