A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS Season 2 Sticks To Six Episodes and Will Be "Smaller" in Scope
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is keeping things lean as it moves forward, and that approach sounds very intentional. As season 2 takes shape, the creative team has confirmed that the next chapter of the Dunk and Egg story will once again run for six episodes and could even feel more contained than what viewers saw in the first season.
Showrunner Ira Parker recently opened up about what’s ahead, explaining that the episode count isn’t changing and the overall scale might actually shrink a bit.
"It’ll still be six episodes. I think the scope will be the same, maybe even smaller," Parker told The Hollywood Reporter.
That smaller footprint isn’t coming from a lack of ambition. It’s a practical shift shaped by logistics, cost, and the story itself. Parker explained that while the budget hasn’t increased, inflation has hit production hard. On top of that, the setting of the second story introduces new challenges that didn’t exist during Season 1.
"The budget has stayed the same, but everything is more expensive due to inflation. Plus, book two takes place in a drought, so we can’t shoot exteriors in Belfast.
“We have to go to a sunny location with no water, which costs money – that’s a major expense that we did not have in season one. I’m having a lot of fun with Season 2. It’s going to be a different season, and, I hope, for the better."
Season 1 adapts The Hedge Knight, the first Dunk and Egg novella written by George R. R. Martin, and Season 2 will pull directly from its follow-up, The Sworn Sword. Each novella clocks in at around 80 pages, which has given the series a clean structure.
With six episodes running roughly 30 to 40 minutes, Parker hasn’t had to stretch the material thin or invent story just to fill space.
When additions have been made, they’ve been done with care and with Martin’s involvement. Parker previously shared how collaborative those conversations have been and how some of the show’s most memorable elements grew out of them.
"He really loved the idea of the Baratheon tent and meeting Lyonel Baratheon in that capacity, which was wonderful. I think something really cool with the design of our puppetry came out of those meetings, you know, this big, sort of, almost like War Horse-style puppetry, rather than the smaller hand puppets in the novella."
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a grounded story set in the world of Westeros. It follows Dunk, a former squire stepping into life as a hedge knight after his master’s death, and Egg, a sharp young stable boy with more going on than he initially lets on. Their journey is less about massive battles and more about character, honor, and survival on the fringes of power.
If Season 2 truly ends up smaller in scope, that may be what works in its favor. With The Sworn Sword as its foundation, the series seems poised to double down on intimate storytelling, sharper focus.