A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms opens to strong viewership and mixed reviews

According to Movieweb, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms debuted to huge viewership but a divided response, holding a 77% Rotten Tomatoes Popcornmeter score, an 8.5 for its first episode on IMDb, and briefly reaching the top spot on HBO Max.

The series, which follows Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire Egg from the novella "The Hedge Knight," spends much of its premiere on worldbuilding. Some negative reviews called the episode "nothing like Game of Thrones" and complained it was "so slow. All that happened was Dunk buried his pa, pooped, danced, and the episode pretty much ended," while other viewers praised the change of pace: "It was a great change of pace and that stops it just being another Game of Thrones clone," and one five-star review said, "People that have a non-existent attention span and a rotted brain will hate this."

With only one episode released, critics in the piece warned that judging a full season on the premiere is premature. The report notes showrunner Ira Parker and George R.R. Martin have indicated there are many more Dunk and Egg stories to tell, and the series — released January 18, 2026 on HBO — could become a recurring era in Westeros if it continues to find an audience.

Key Topics

Culture, George R.r. Martin, Ira Parker, Hbo Max, Rotten Tomatoes