HBO's 10/10 High Fantasy Masterpiece Deserves Kudos For Not Trying To Be Like Game Of Thrones

Published Sep 14, 2026, 8:30 PM EDT

Angel Shaw is a Lead Writer and Critic on ScreenRant's TV team, covering new-release and classic TV shows across all major streaming platforms. She has been a writer with ScreenRant since 2022 and specializes in Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, and fantasy. 

Angel holds a bachelor's degree in language interpreting and is passionate about all things culture and communication—especially in how it relates to popular media throughout history (from Shakespeare to Friends to Game of Thrones).

Every fantasy TV show these days wants to be the next Game of Thrones, but an absolute hit from HBO deserves a medal for heading in a different direction. Even after divisive endings and unpopular spinoff changes, there's really no denying that Game of Thrones is the greatest thing to ever happen to fantasy TV. Contemporary fantasy ruled the scene up to 2011, but once the show based on George R.R. Martin's works premiered, the entire landscape changed. This naturally meant that every screenwriter, director, and media conglomerate did all they could to duplicate that success.

Very few TV shows came anywhere near the mastery of Game of Thrones. High fantasy became dark and gritty, full of political strife, vengeance, scheming, and untrustworthy magic. Netflix's The Witcher came close to matching the vibe, but there were too many other issues. Prime Video's The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power did its best to edge up Tolkien, but that hasn't been too popular either. Many of these imitators aren't outright failures, but they fell short of the masterpieces they might have been had they gone their own way.

That's where A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms comes in. Ironically, this actually is a Game of Thrones series. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is another prequel spinoff, like House of the Dragon. Still, while the latter show did everything it could to duplicate that dagger-sharp tone of the original series, the former seemed to go to great lengths to be the complete opposite of what people generally associate with Game of Thrones.

The proof of this comes with the very first episode. As A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms season 1 went to introduce its new hero, Ser Duncan the Tall, the episode swelled to what should have been the dramatic title song used previously for both Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. Instead, however, the moment cut away to a far less dramatic, far more hilarious sight—Dunk taking a dump. Unlike its parent series, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is largely unserious. It's more than a joke, however, since this series layers its comedy with heartwarming quaintness and downright excellent storytelling.

The High Fantasy Genre Desperately Needed This Break

There's no bigger curse on a genre than when a new project becomes a cultural phenomenon. The wave of similar high-fantasy shows that have emerged since Game of Thrones became a hit has been entirely exhausting. Sure, gritty political intrigue paired with some foreboding and mysterious magic is a good deal of fun, but high fantasy should be so much more than just that. It's possible to bring a darker edge to the genre without eliminating the calm, quaint, charming vibe more traditionally associated with these sorts of works.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has moments that are unmistakably Game of Thrones. Eventually, that iconic title song makes its appearance, and the moment is perfectly placed at a climactic high-point for the series. Still, the show makes it clear from episode to episode that this tone isn't the foundation of the tale. It doesn't have to be, because high fantasy can be, quite literally, anything that anyone wants it to be.

It's even more fantastic that this change of pace came directly from the Game of Thrones franchise, since it essentially means the wider genre has permission to do anything but what it has been doing for the last decade and a half. The doors are officially thrown open, and while we can expect plenty more dark and gritty violence, there's a lot more room for cozy charm on the new high fantasy landscape that A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has built. It's certainly something to look forward to.

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  Peter Claffey

  Ser Duncan 'Dunk' the Tall

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  Dexter Sol Ansell

  Egg

A new prequel entry in the sprawling Game of Thrones franchise, centered on a humble wandering knight and his clever young squire. The pair travel across a Westeros still ruled by a Targaryen dynasty, but far removed from dragonfire and dynastic war.