There’s a particular kind of excitement that comes with a new HBO fantasy series. But A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms arrived carrying something different from its predecessors, not the weight of thrones and succession wars, but the warmth of two mismatched companions wandering a world that hasn’t broken them yet. And before you sit down for episode one, there’s one thing you probably want confirmed first.
So, how many episodes in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms? Season 1 consists of six episodes, released weekly on Sundays on HBO and HBO Max. The first episode dropped on January 18, 2026, and the sixth and final episode of the season, titled The Morrow, airs on February 22, 2026. That’s your complete first season, six weeks, six episodes, one story fully told.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode Count: The Full Season 1 List
Here’s the complete episode list for season one, in order:
Episode 1 — The Hedge Knight
Episode 2 — Heart Salt Beef
Episode 3 — The Squire
Episode 4 — Seven
Episode 5 — In the Name of the Mother
Episode 6 — The Morrow
Each episode runs roughly 30 minutes, which makes the a knight of the seven kingdoms episode count feel both tight and intentional. Episode 6 runs 31 minutes, tied for the shortest episode of the season along with Episode 3. Some viewers have flagged the runtime as a limitation, but the show’s source material makes a strong case for the format. The novella The Hedge Knight, which season one adapts, runs to roughly 118 pages, padding it with invented plot lines just for the sake of longer episodes would have been a disservice to the story.
Six tightly constructed episodes, each earning its place. That’s the rhythm the show commits to, and for the most part, it works.
What the Show is Actually About
The story of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms which takes place one hundred years before Game of Thrones tells the story of two heroes who travel through Westeros. The friends who face dangerous situations together will encounter their ultimate destinies while battling fierce enemies.
Ira Parker and George R.R. Martin developed the series through their creative partnership. Peter Claffey plays the role of Ser Duncan “Dunk” the Tall while Dexter Sol Ansell portrays his squire Aegon “Egg” Targaryen. The last name requires you to think twice because Egg travels as a Targaryen prince who uses a different identity. The first season builds its complete plot around his two separate identities which create a hidden tension that exists throughout the entire story.
The tournament in Ashford serves as the central location which unifies all events throughout the entire Ashford tournament. The dunk and egg tv series is not a war story. The project exists at a smaller scale because its creators wanted to achieve that specific result. The show uses character relationships together with chivalric codes which face testing through actual dirty conditions to show the developing bond between two people who belong to different social classes.That’s the show operates as its main form of exchange.
The Source Material Behind the Six Episodes
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms draws on three novellas that George R.R. Martin published between 1998 and 2010, collected together in the A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms anthology in 2015, complete with illustrations from Gary Gianni.
Season one adapts the first of those three stories, The Hedge Knight, published in 1998. The second novella, The Sworn Sword, and the third, The Mystery Knight, provide the foundation for future seasons.
The six-episode structure is not arbitrary. It maps neatly to the scope of The Hedge Knight itself. A single tournament, a specific cast of characters, a defined arc with a beginning and an end. Stretching that into ten episodes would have required inventing material that is not there. Six episodes respects the source.
How Many Episodes Does A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Have Versus Other HBO Fantasy Shows
How many episodes does a knight of the seven kingdoms have becomes an interesting question when you hold it alongside the other shows in the same universe. Game of Thrones ran ten episodes per season for most of its run. House of the Dragon also launched with ten episodes in its first season.
Six is a different bet entirely. It positions A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms closer to the HBO prestige limited series tradition, tighter, more focused, built for impact rather than accumulation. The comparison to Chernobyl or The White Lotus is apt: these are shows where every hour has to pull weight, because there are no throwaway episodes in a six-episode run.
Reviewers on IMDb noted that the only real negative is the season’s short length, the show is so good that it leaves you wanting more. That’s a different kind of complaint from what shorter seasons usually receive. It’s not that the show ran out of story. It’s that viewers wanted to stay longer. That’s a meaningful distinction.
What Critics and Viewers Said About the Season
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating based on 143 critic reviews, with the critics consensus reading: “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is a welcome return to Westeros that works better in the buddy-comedy arena rather than solely slaying its competition.” Metacritic gave a score of 74 out of 100 based on 37 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews.
The consensus points to something real about what the hbo knight of the seven kingdoms episodes are doing differently. This is not Game of Thrones attempting to replicate itself. Dunk and Egg’s dynamic has a warmth and humor to it that the original series rarely touched. Viewers noted that Duncan hits exactly the right note, not the smartest person in the room, but not a dunce either. Moral without being preachy. Vulnerable without being weak. That calibration is harder to achieve than it looks.
Episode 5, In the Name of the Mother, delivered the season’s climactic Trial of Seven, a combat sequence that saw Dunk face Aerion Targaryen while badly outmatched, and Baelor Targaryen die after being struck in the head during the melee. It’s the kind of moment the Game of Thrones universe is known for: earned, unexpected, and quietly devastating.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Total Episodes Across Future Seasons
A knight of the seven kingdoms total episodes will grow beyond six if HBO’s plans hold. In November 2025, ahead of the first season premiere, the series was renewed for a second season, which will be based on The Sworn Sword and is expected to release in 2027. Filming for the second season began in December 2025 in Belfast.
The longer horizon is even more interesting. Showrunner Ira Parker has stated his ambition clearly, he wants to do four or five seasons now with Egg as a kid, then return in ten years to do four or five more seasons with Egg the Prince. Whether HBO commits to that vision fully remains to be seen, but the early renewal signals confidence in the property.
HBO’s head of drama, Francesca Orsi, has stated that the plan is ideally “year-to-year and arcing out a three-season series, which maps out the three novellas that George wrote.” That’s the more conservative version of the future, three seasons, one per novella, each presumably around six episodes. Parker’s vision is considerably more expansive.
On January 17, 2026, Parker revealed that George R.R. Martin had shared with him outlines for 12 unpublished Dunk and Egg novellas. That’s a deep well of source material, and it suggests a knight of the seven kingdoms total episodes could eventually number in the dozens if the series runs its full potential course.
When and Where to Watch
The first season premiered on HBO and HBO Max on January 18, 2026.Episodes have been released on a weekly basis, every Sunday in North and South America, with international territories receiving episodes on Mondays. Episode 4’s schedule was adjusted due to the 2026 Super Bowl, but every other episode dropped at its regular time.
If you’re starting fresh, all five episodes currently available are streaming now on HBO Max. The finale arrives February 22, 2026.
Why Six Episodes is Enough
The instinct to want more is understandable. Six episodes feels brief in an era when streaming services routinely commission ten, twelve, even sixteen-episode seasons. But there’s a version of this show that would suffer for being longer.
How many episodes in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is ultimately a question about scale. This is a story about a hedge knight at a tournament, not a dynasty unraveling across continents. It lives in specific moments, a conversation in a stable, a meal shared on a road, a fight that nobody really wins. Expanding that into a ten-episode format would require filling space that the story doesn’t have. Six episodes is exactly the right amount of room for the story that’s being told.
That focus is part of what makes it work. You’re never waiting for the show to catch up to itself. Every episode moves, every scene earns its place, and when the season ends, the story will actually be finished, not mid-thread, not on a cliffhanger designed to make you feel cheated, but done. Complete. Clean.
For a show built around two people finding their way across a world that doesn’t particularly care about them, that kind of structural honesty feels exactly right.
