A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Showrunner Explains That Baffling Music Choice In The Premiere

Warning: This article contains spoilers for the series premiere of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms."

The debut of any new show set in the same world as the original "Game of Thrones" is always bound to stir up conversation, and "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" has definitely lived up to the hype in that regard. The premiere almost immediately had tongues wagging during the very first scene, when our main protagonist Dunk (Peter Claffey) buries his late master Ser Arlan (Danny Webb) and looks ahead to the future. The upcoming tourney at Ashford Meadow provides a tantalizing glimmer of glory and heroism, the famous "Game of Thrones" theme kicks in, and it all builds to a fever pitch ... before cutting to our humble hedge knight, uh, evacuating his bowels behind a tree in the most undignified way imaginable.

Understandably, viewers experienced a wide range of reactions to this moment — mainly, why use that specific music cue in the first place? Luckily, co-creator and showrunner Ira Parker recently spoke during a roundtable interview (which /Film attended) and addressed this very topic. According to the writer:

"On the page, it was written as, 'Dunk hears the hero theme in his head,' and we didn't know exactly what the hero theme was going to be at that point. But when we tried a whole bunch of things out, Dunk's hero theme that [composer Dan Romer] developed for the show felt like Dunk in this moment now. But what he's hearing in his head is that call to greatness, that call of a potential something else in the future. And so, what is the best call to greatness of the whole world than the 'Game of Thrones' theme, the most iconic theme that's ever been laid down before?"

What a way to set "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" apart from any other show in the franchise, eh? The "Game of Thrones" brand has never hesitated to throw viewers headfirst into the muck and grime of Westeros before, but this instance somehow felt a bit more visceral than fans may have been expecting. Many were quick to take to social media to express their displeasure at the visual of Dunk relieving himself explosively (just as others were quick to defend it), but what was really going on here? Once again, Ira Parker provides the answer — and it has everything to do with Dunk's complicated headspace at that moment in time. As he explained:

"As soon as [Dunk] hears that music, the reality of what it takes to actually go off and do that and how terrifying it is hits him, and forces him into a very unheroic crouch [...] that yields bad things for him. Which I think, hopefully [laughs], is very understandable to a lot of people who have had big ideas and not known exactly — you know, been hit with the reality of, 'How do I go off and do this?'"

Of course, the internet has a way of reading a little too much into things. While some questioned whether this gross subversion of expectations was really necessary, others interpreted it as a direct shot fired at either of the two predecessor shows that came before. Considering Parker previously worked on "House of the Dragon" and also speaks highly of the original "Game of Thrones," that theory seems rather unlikely.

New episodes of "A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms" air on HBO and HBO Max every Sunday.