A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Ditched The 'Dunk And Egg' Title Because It Sounds Too Much Like Beavis And Butt-Head
In Warner Bros. Discovery's quest to double and triple down on all of their most successful properties, we will be heading back to the world of Westeros yet again for a forthcoming series that is rather exhaustively titled (at least for now) "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight." If you are not steeped in the lore of George R.R. Martin's books, that title looks like a bit of gobbledygook. I mean, it has the word "knight" in it twice. Just from an aesthetic perspective, you would think HBO would want to clean that up a bit. The title also gives the impression that if it gets greenlit for a second season, we'll start following a different knight.
The much more simple title for the series would be "Dunk and Egg," as this show will follow the journey of Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg and is based on a series of novellas referred to as "The Tales of Dunk and Egg." That being said, the word salad title we do have may actually be less gobbledygook than "Dunk and Egg," which centers two characters the vast majority of show watchers do not know, and doesn't explicitly connect them to iconography of the Westeros we have come to recognize in "Game of Thrones" and "House of the Dragon."
Knights? We know them. The Seven Kingdoms? We know those. Along with the recognition, HBO also wants to ensure that the tone of these shows remains intact. As author George R.R. Martin explained, the "Dunk and Egg" title might cause people to mistakenly expect some Westerosi sitcom — which it's not (even if that does sound like a fun departure for some of us fans).
Centralizing knighthood and chivalry
Though they have somewhat silly names, both Dunk and Egg go on to roles of great prominence in Westeros (which I won't spoil) about a century before the events of "Game of Thrones." These are stories about two men working their way up the ladder, though not in the Littlefinger manner of doing things. George R.R. Martin wanted to make sure that people understood the connection to "Game of Thrones," and knew what the core themes of the show would be, writing on his blog:
"[I]t won't be called 'Tales of Dunk & Egg' or 'The Adventures of Dunk & Egg' or 'Dunk & Egg' or anything along those lines. I love Dunk and I love Egg, and I know that fans refer to my novellas as 'the Dunk & Egg stories,' sure, but there are millions of people out there who do not know the stories and the title needs to intrigue them too. If you don't know the characters, 'Dunk & Egg' sounds like a sitcom. 'Laverne & Shirley.' 'Abbot & Costello.' 'Beavis & Butthead.' So, no. We want 'knight' in the title. Knighthood and chivalry are central to the themes of these stories."
"A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is the name of the collection of the first three "Dunk & Egg" novellas. Martin envisions each season of the series covering one of the novellas, and they can switch out the subtitle to "The Sworn Sword" and "The Mystery Knight" as they go. Of course, George R.R. Martin has yet to finish writing all the "Dunk & Egg" stories. Shocking, I know. Martin does say this is a working title, and I imagine they'll drop the subtitles. "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" is all they need.