Four episodes in, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has attracted few dissenters, if any. Its episodes have ranked among the highest-rated in the Game of Thrones universe. And with its latest episode 4, it’s already clear that this small-stakes, dragon-less story is becoming far richer than initially thought.
Pristine white though it is, there’s one black spot in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ cloak: it’s short runtime. For a franchise long accustomed to hour-long episodes, 30 minutes feels constricting. Blame for this is two-fold. First, the source material is limited; George R. R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg saga consists of just three novellas.
Second, and more crucially, is HBO’s insistence on adhering to a traditional television format. That doesn’t feel like such a bad choice until one remembers that fans have long fancied a big-screen Game of Thrones franchise showing. The possibility of two three-hour films, à la Dune, warrants exploration in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Should Have Been HBO’s Testing Ground for the Big Screen
It’s no secret that the idea of Westerosi lore playing out on the silver screen, with all its dragonfire and winter-y glory, has long been flirted with by HBO and even by Martin himself. And this was even before Game of Thrones established itself as event television.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms was once an affirmation away from being that reality. Showrunner Ira Parker once admitted in an interview that “it was probably George’s preference to do a two-hour movie.” Parker’s arguments in favor of the season’s six-episode format cite the episodic cliff-hangers and the need not to “over-stretch” the story beyond its natural limits.
That’s true. What’s also true is that a film format offers distinct advantages, particularly suited to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms. Perhaps the most obvious is that it eliminates several fillers in the show. Ironically, even with its brief 30-minute runtime, the series still finds room for filler: songs about a certain Alice with three fingers and repetitive character beats.
These moments help establish tone and camaraderie, but only a few advance the plot in any meaningful way. Over time, they begin to feel exhausting — at least before episode 4 sharpens the story’s direction. A movie would have encouraged narrative discipline, with every scene justifying its presence.
HBO Still Has Another Chance with House of the Dragon Seasons 3 and 4
Hopes of a theatrical Westerosi store have germinated again in the upcoming prequel, Aegon’s Conquest. Reports have it that the tale of how the Targaryens brought all of Westeros to heel is being written with a cinematic vision in mind.
That prospect is music to the ears of Martin’s readers. Aegon’s Conquest is both battle-heavy and dragon-heavy, featuring some of the most cinema-ready moments in the entire canon: the holy trinity of dragons — Balerion, Vhagar, and Meraxes, the Field of Fire, and the siege and burning of Harrenhal. But does HBO really have to wait that long?
There’s another immediate and equally grand candidate that would be just as suitable for the big screen. This, of course, refers to House of the Dragon. Seasons 1 and 2 have laid the groundwork for a run of conflicts in Season 3 (where the dragons truly dance) that are widely expected to be the most ambitious battles ever attempted for television.
Principal photography may already be locked in, but the opportunity hasn’t faded. HBO can go the Stranger Things finale route and grant select episodes a limited theatrical showing. It will almost certainly be the last heroic act of the streaming service before its certain death in any finalized acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery by Netflix.
Stranger Things Finale and The Chosen Already Tested This Theory, with Success
There’s already precedent for Martin’s A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ abandoned big-screen hopes and a potential small-screen-to-big-screen jump for House of the Dragon. And it ironically comes from a company often positioned as cinema’s rival. Netflix’s Stranger Things premiered its two-hour season finale simultaneously on streaming and in limited theatrical showings.
The latter had over 1.1 million RSVPs across 620 theaters, lining up before the event had even kicked off on New Year’s Day. The turnout translated into an estimated $25 million in revenue. This figure, though, wasn’t calculated through traditional box-office accounting because the screenings were special events rather than ticketed studio releases.
Before Stranger Things, faith-based series The Chosen proved that major tentpole series can generate substantial revenue on the silver screen. The Chosen: Last Supper – Part 1’s $5.1 million first-day haul was only narrowly beaten by A Working Man’s $5.6 million for the top movie of March 28, 2025.
If a niche, faith-driven series can command that kind of theatrical turnout, imagine what a Season 2–reimagined-as-films A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms could achieve, or an exclusive theatrical run for a centerpiece battle such as the Battle of the Gullet in House of the Dragon.
- Release Date
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January 18, 2026
- Network
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HBO
- Showrunner
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Ira Parker
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Peter Claffey
Ser Duncan ‘Dunk’ the Tall
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