George R.R. Martin Reveals A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Sneaks in a 1952 Elizabeth Taylor Easter Egg
At New York Comic Con 2025, George R.R. Martin challenged A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker to craft the definitive Westerosi joust, drawing inspiration from a classic Elizabeth Taylor film.
George R.R. Martin rolled into New York Comic Con 2025 and threw down a very George challenge for the Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: make the best jousting ever put on film. Modest, right? And yes, he even named the bar they need to clear.
"Let’s do the best jousting sequences that have ever been put on film... I think my favorite previous was 1952’s Ivanhoe... So that’s the standard. You guys will judge how we did. But I think we did really well."
The bar is Ivanhoe, of all things
Martin singled out 1952’s Ivanhoe as the benchmark. Not a ton of jousting in that movie, but what is there is sharp enough that he wants the new show to top it. If you know your classic Hollywood, that’s the Robert Taylor/Elizabeth Taylor one. Using that as the measuring stick tells you exactly how clean, practical, and hard-hitting they want this to feel.
Why tournaments matter this time
The series adapts the first Tales of Dunk and Egg novella, The Hedge Knight, and plants one of its biggest set pieces at the tourney at Ashford Meadow. That’s new territory for this franchise on screen. A Song of Ice and Fire is full of tournaments, but Game of Thrones rarely put them front and center. Here, the entire story spins out of one.
Quick refresher if you haven’t read it: Ser Duncan the Tall heads to Ashford to compete as a newly minted knight. Along the way he picks up a scrawny bald kid named Egg and makes him his squire. Things go sideways when Dunk defends a puppeteer from Prince Aerion Targaryen and ends up jailed, which leads to a trial by combat that forces him to fight for both his honor and his neck. Character drama first, steel-on-steel spectacle right behind it.
No dragons, more pageantry
The show takes place about 50 years after the last dragon died, which puts House Targaryen in an awkward spot: still in charge, minus the giant fire-breathers that made everyone behave. Showrunner Ira Parker pointed to tournaments as part of their strategy to project power when intimidation is no longer a given.
"Maybe [the Targaryens] feel that they have to come to a tournament at Ashford Meadow, in this backwater of a place that they probably wouldn’t have gone to before, to show faith, to show up, to shake hands."
So while the narrative zooms in on Dunk and Egg, the Targaryens remain a major presence, working the crowd and reminding the realm who is still calling the shots. It tracks with what Martin has said about the series: more a character piece about chivalry and honor than massive battlefield carnage. If we’re not getting thousand-horse charges, then the joust needs to be the showstopper, and they know it.
What to know going in
- Title: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms
- Showrunner: Ira Parker
- Based on: The first Tales of Dunk and Egg novella (The Hedge Knight)
- Setting: Roughly 50 years after the last dragon died in Westeros
- Key event: The tourney at Ashford Meadow as a narrative centerpiece
- House Targaryen: Still influential, using tourneys as public theater
- Notable face: Finn Bennett appears in the series
- Release date: January 18, 2026
- Episodes: 6
- Where to watch: HBO
If they actually stick the landing on this Ivanhoe-level joust, expect it to be the sequence everyone argues about the night it airs. And frankly, if you’re going to build an entire season around honor and spectacle, you might as well swing for the fence.