The pressure for Ira Parker must have been immense. Since the first season ended in 2019, HBO has been attempting to sustain the popularity of the “Game of Thrones” franchise with varying degrees of success. The prequel series “House of the Dragon” is about to begin its third season, and while it’s had strong global viewership, it hasn’t been the critical or pop culture sensation its predecessor was. There was also a pricey “Bloodmoon” pilot starring Naomi Watts that the network decided not to go forward with. Enter Parker, who was given the reins of adapting the George R.R. Martin novella “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” a show going in an entirely different direction.
Essentially a two-fer following the exploits of an aspirational knight, Duncan “Dunk” the Tall (Peter Claffey), and his young squire, Egg (secretly high Prince Aegon Targaryen, portrayed by Dexter Sol Ansell), the show has minimal Westeros political intrigue, no massive land battles (although fights a plenty), and not a dragon in sight. While Parker, whose credits include “Dragon,” “The Nevers,” and the seminal FX comedy “Better Things,” believes the previous “GoT” series were grounded, there is an authenticity to “Knight” and moments where the events simply breathe, surprising viewers time and again. It’s one reason why fans have passionately embraced the series, and critics have heaped praise upon it (it also earned key 2026 TCA Awards nominations this morning).
During a recent interview, Parker reflected on moving forward with a second season before the first six episodes were released, his partnership with Martin, when he knew Claffey and Sol Ansell were the perfect Dunk and Egg, and while the show’s canon has already revealed the fates of our heroes to the diehards, Martin has sketched out more than 10 different adventures for them to partake in. Could a “Game of Thrones” series really run for that long? Ponder.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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The Playlist: You make the first season, but you don’t know how it’s going to be perceived, and you’re already working on a second season before that first season drops. How nervous were you going into doing the second season? And when did you realize from the reaction from critics and fans that, “Yes, we’re on the right track”?
Ira Parker: Look, to a certain extent, we were very happy we were going to do a season two before we got any reactions, because then at least we had done a season two if it really sucked. I think that was in the back of my brain. Now that it’s been received positively, I guess it’s helpful. I’m not sure we’ve changed anything. I’m not sure, along the way, having it come out and people respond to it that way. I don’t think you can. I think everybody was giving it a real, honest effort. Since season one, Peter and Dexter have just grown and gotten even better if that’s possible. We have an incredible new cast in season two. The novella is so much fun. It’s a different energy than season one. I think every show always goes bigger and badder for season two. And this is a function of the novella. This is maybe smaller than season one. It takes place in a more remote location. You’re not camping at this big tournament with lots of noise. It’s quieter in a lot of ways, and it still has a lot of the great elements of one. But George has done a wonderful job for this one of not repeating himself and not just repeating what works. That’s the fun of an adventure series, I guess.
I have not read any of the books, but one of the things that struck me about your season is the humor that’s in it. There have always been little moments of humor in “Game of Thrones” and “House of the Dragon,” but this is different. How much is that you? How much is that George’s work in the novels? Do you think there’s more of you in this than people might think?
No, look, I don’t know what people might think, but with everything you put it through your own filter, and you could give the same book to 10 different artists and get 10 very different versions. I think my voice very naturally lends itself to this world of Westeros. So, nobody had to force anything. But really, we were trying to just write this as if George had written a novel instead of a novella. Where would he have naturally gone? If you get to spend any time with people like Lyonel Baratheon, for real, what is that character going to be like? How do we want them interacting with Dunk? These are the fun questions we got to answer.
There are also these stark moments of grounded drama in the show that are even more grounded, at least to me as someone who’s watched way too much film and television than the original series. It’s how you guys shoot it, how you guys depict it. Is that also an element to the books, or is that just a tone you guys wanted to bring to the show overall?
It’s interesting because I thought that “Game of Thrones” always worked for me because it actually did feel quite authentic. Even though we were in a fantasy world, the drama felt real, the relationships between the people and they didn’t pull any punches. If somebody had to die or if something bad had to happen, they went full force, and they almost reveled in it. They enjoyed themselves. And we’ve done that too. We don’t want to sort of try to get past it. You stick a chin out, and you take on that mantle. You say, “O.K., now it’s time for something bad to happen to everybody’s favorite person.” And this is what makes for good television. This is what people want to see. This is what the story requires. This is what Dunk needs for the beginning of his journey. And anytime you make a little change to one of those things, if you don’t land it, if you don’t drive it deep into the ground, then it has repercussions in seasons two and three and four, and hopefully season 10, that it feels less weighty down the line because he didn’t really go for it. But I actually, I don’t accept what you said at the beginning. I don’t think that “Game of Thrones: didn’t land those moments.
I wasn’t saying they didn’t land those moments, but they did do it, as you said, in a way that they often relished in it more. I feel like watching your show, there’s an intimacy that maybe wasn’t always in “Game of Thrones,” but that’s just me.
No, look, I love that because seeing how people react to this … I mean, nobody has seen the show more times than me, and hearing new reactions to, for example, like episode five, there’s so much “Rocky” in there, and we were cognizant of that it was happening. We are telling a very classically heroic story. And so I think some people could very reasonably call that, not camp, but relishing in the heroic of this moment, even though it’s muddy and it’s messy, and it’s terrible. When he gets up, and the music swells, and it has the four builds.
O.K. I buy that.
We’re doing the thing.
You are doing the thing. I do want to ask about that episode. Was that the one you were most concerned about pulling off, or were you more confident in that because of what it was as opposed to maybe other episodes?
Look, you got to make sure you launch correctly. First seasons matter a great deal. But no, it’s always been a holistic view from the beginning. We try to, in a non-ego way, assume that it’s going to work out. Assume that people are going to come to this story. One of the hardest decisions we made was that we slightly cannibalized an idea from book three into the first season, and its [a bit of] robbing Peter to pay Paul. And so, even though nothing had come out yet, it was so early. We hadn’t even shot anything yet. I was already worried about the fact that we were going to be doubling up a little bit and trying to make sure that when we do get there, that still felt different. Season one doesn’t feel any bigger or more important than season two for us. We need everything to be consistent and good and keep everybody entertained.
You did mention you were hopeful season 10. Of it going for a long time, there’s clearly only been three novels that George has written. Has he talked to you about storylines?
I think he has shown me somewhere in the realm of 10 to 12, 13 other stories that they’ve been through the rest of their lives. Obviously, from the canon, we know where Dunk and Egg end up. We know major things that happened to them. So, they have a full story. We just don’t have the actual prose written by Mr. Martin yet, but their story has been ended. We know a lot of events that they take apart of. George and I actually spoke pretty early on in the process about what would happen, and we both just sort of agreed that I would just come to Santa Fe and I’ll sit down and we’ll break the story together. We have a really lovely relationship, and I also, I promised him in, I think my very first meeting, that I would never put anything in the show that he didn’t want. And I think ultimately it’s created a very fruitful creative partnership for us. For him to be able to say no whenever he feels like it, sort of makes him never say no. It’s always become a conversation. “Oh, nice,” he asks, “Why did you do it like this?” I think one draft he got at me for something, but I think it even ended up going in the show. So it’s fine. It’s fine. He’s a very reasonable, lovely human being. And he loves this world. He loves Dunk and Eggs. So he just gets as excited about it as you do, and it makes you get more excited about it. Anyway, we’ll figure it out if we get there.
Casting was paramount in so many ways. Do you remember when you knew for each of them in the audition process when they were the ones?
Yes. Dexter, I knew he was Egg from the very first casting sent to me of all the auditions starting the whole process. I got my first batch. It was the number one batch of Eggs and Dexter, number one at the top, probably like a list of 12. And I watched his audition. I thought, “Oh, this is great. This is perfect. Yeah, this is what we need. Sign him up.” nd of course we didn’t. A casting director told me to cool it for a second, and we did our due diligence, but that was very easy for us. He was perfect right from the beginning. Peter was a longer road to find. I knew it was him when he came in for his first audition. And I remember our casting director said to me, “The thing that I really like about him is that he hasn’t been doing it very long, but every time he comes into my office, he’s exponentially better than the last time.” And that’s sort of what you’re looking for when you’re trying to find an unknown, is you want somebody who is not a finished product, who is not at the greatest heights of their powers. I think Peter Claffey is going to be a f**king rocket ship to the moon. He just, even in season two, somehow he is still exponentially better than season one. In season one, he was brilliant, and people f**king love him. So, I’m not sure what this guy can’t do. He just keeps impressing me. And same with Dexter. I think they feed off of each other a little bit in the best way possible.
Did you have them audition together at all?
They did. Yeah. We did a final chemistry read with a few different pairs towards the end. And nothing was set in stone yet, but as soon as it was the two of them in a scene, just physically relating to each other, it just worked.
It would be shocking if a third season wasn’t greenlit. I don’t even know if…
No, no. No, not- It’s not nothing.
Even after the ratings for season one?
We are very much focused on- Season two.
Is there an urgency because of how old Dexter is to try to shoot sooner rather than later so that the character doesn’t age up more than you might want him to? Or is that just part of the natural process?
Yeah. The nice thing about these Novellas is that we’re meant to take them through their lives.
Ah.
Dexter doesn’t have to be eight years old for a 10-season run. We want this to happen. There was a little bit of urgency, I think, going into season two because there’s only about a year, year and a half in between them. Season three, or book three, there is actually a pretty small jump. But it doesn’t kill us if it’s a little bit of a larger jump. And there’s things in the book about Egg slowly having some hairs coming in there that he needs to get. And so it was already written in that he is getting to this next level of maturity. But yeah, look, I don’t know if you have kids, but my kids aren’t that old yet, but everyone tells me it’s around this age. It’s around 12, 13 where they make a jump. And so we know something’s coming.
Something’s coming. And just because you’ve worked on so many different things over your career so far, do you feel like you’ll have an opportunity to do anything else in between, potentially season two or season three, or are you on this road for “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” as long as it goes?
Look, I love this world. I love this story. My goal would be to really just put something into this world that can last and endure, and people can keep coming back to. And I think we seem to be headed in that direction at least, as long as we don’t mess it up too badly. So, I’d like to keep on this road if that’s O.K.. please.
A friend of mine who is a producer told me earlier today that you’d written something for them a couple of years ago.
Really?
Yeah. And he was like, “I hope he writes something else,” because he loved whatever you’d done. So maybe there is some time in there to do it. But my last question for you is, you say you love this world. What about it gets you excited? What about these characters makes you want to commit to it and go shoot back-to-back seasons almost?
Well, one thing is that obviously when you enter Westeros, anything can happen, which is obviously very freeing. Two is, again, I say this all the time, but no cell phones. I like that. That’s a very helpful storytelling bit that the scenes don’t get ruined because of cell phones. And I like the hopefulness of this series, but that it doesn’t feel too sugary, that we’re seeing different sides of hope, and sometimes it’s when hope completely vanishes, the type of person who can still find a way through is, I don’t know, is helpful for me, inspiring for me. And so I like writing about these things.
“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is on HBO Max
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