A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was almost the first Game of Thrones movie, the show's creator says — and it nearly happened because of George R.R. Martin

• A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was initially considered as a movie
• It was George R.R. Martin's "preference" for that to happen, its showrunner says
• HBO also thought about releasing the Game of Thrones series all at once

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (AKotSK) almost saw the light of day as the first-ever Game of Thrones movie – and it was George R.R. Martin's "preference" for that to be the case.

The new HBO Max show, which premieres this Sunday (January 18), is based on a short story titled The Hedge Knight. That's the first entry in Martin's 'Dunk and Egg' novella trilogy, which takes place around 100 years before the events concerning Daenarys Targaryen, Jon Snow, and Tyrion Lannister, to name just three.

Considering that The Hedge Knight is only 66 pages long, adapting its tale feels tailor-made for a feature-length film rather than a multi-episode TV series. And, responding to a question from TechRadar during a roundtable discussion ahead of AKotSK season 1's launch, showrunner Ira Parker revealed that such a scenario was championed by Martin himself.

"It was George's preference to do a two-hour movie," Parker replied. "And, when HBO came to me, they were very amenable to any length or format that we wanted to use.

"Based on the underlying material, the 30 to 60 minute [episodic format] gave us a pretty wide berth that we could lay down the type of story that was necessary," he continued. "Six episodes was talked about right from the beginning, because everybody's read the novella. We know how much [story] there is to mine and we didn't want to send Dunk off any on any weird side quests."

Determining what was the right medium to tell The Hedge Knight's story, plus how long each episode should be, weren't the only big decisions that Parker, Martin, and the show's chief creative team had to overcome.

Whether it was another Thrones prequel in House of the Dragon or the main show itself, chapters of each program's eight-part seasons have been released weekly. As Parker mentioned, though, AKotSK only comprises six episodes, with installments running between 30 and 40 minutes apiece. Did he or HBO executives, then, see the value in releasing its full first season on launch day and consider doing so?

"It was all on the table," Parker mused. "[HBO thought about] releasing two episodes at a time, or releasing them all at once. I actually never had any real conversations about that as I always assumed it was going to be once a week. There's just something fun about waiting for a new Game of Thrones show. It's always nice when there's a new series around that you can do that with. That's how I came up watching it but, these days, who knows?

"I think there would be a lot of benefit to putting [out] a couple episodes together," he continued. "But, the truth is, is every episode has its own unique feel to it. It was very important that it didn't just feel like one big, long movie divided up into six parts. Each individual episode had its own reason for existing. So, hopefully we've executed that well and I guess we'll find out if that was the right move soon."

Before it makes its debut, find out everything you need to know about A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Then, read my full review of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to see why I called it the "triumphant underdog tale that HBO's Game of Thrones franchise needs".

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 1 arrives on Sunday, January 18 (North and South America) and Monday, January 19 everywhere else.

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