Why are A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episodes so short?

Barely 30 minutes a week. It’s a very small dose of Game of Thrones. The showrunner explains.

Thirty minutes. Not one more each episode. Where Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon stretched their intrigues over one-hour episodes (minimum), A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes a definite step aside and surprises fans. A choice that goes against the franchise’s standards, which its showrunner Ira Parker explains in an interview with GQ.

The main reason can be summed up in two words: absolute loyalty. Loyalty to The Hedge Knight, the short story by George RR Martin from which the series is based, and loyalty to its spirit.

“That was George’s key word when we met,” Parker says. The author of the books was very attached to this story and its characters, and wanted them to be respected on screen. A goal that the showrunner fully shares: “I like these stories as they are presented. I like their tone. George and I were totally aligned.”

The problem with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is that the raw material is thin. Very thin.

The Hedge Knight was originally just 84 pages long. And a large part of the story is based on the inner monologue of Dunk, one of the most anxious characters in Westeros.

“There’s a lot going on in his head,” Parker recalls. Adapt this flow of thoughts, give depth to the world without distorting it, while wondering if the project could really work on television. This is where HBO’s flexibility comes into play. When Parker was approached, he first imagined a classic format: ten one-hour episodes. But the channel offers something else: six 30-minute episodes.

“It allows us to be more compact and offer something that is a real pleasure.”

The objective is clear: not to pull the string, not to dilute the story, and above all not to let the series drag on longer than necessary.

This short format was even a key argument to convince George RR Martin. Above all, the writer feared an artificially stretched adaptation:

“Even before contacting George, we knew that it was possible to do 30-minute episodes. HBO had already offered it to us. That made it easier to convince George that it was feasible as a television series, and of good quality. One of his main concerns, regarding a faithful adaptation, was that the story would not be able to reach this scale. Knowing that HBO would not force us to do so, we could have fun. We could spend time in Westeros, get to know Dunk and Egg better and their relationship. In the first season, we could introduce the members of the jury of the Seven a little before the final confrontation. Lyonel Baratheon has a much more important role in the series than in the book, where he only has one line just before the trial. We didn’t force the line. We didn’t add any weird side quests with Dunk and Egg.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms can be seen on HBO Max in France.