George R. R. Martin Officially Picks Dunk & Egg Over ‘Winds of Winter’

Published Nov 12, 2026, 8:04 AM EST

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Waiting for George R. R. Martin to finish The Winds of Winter has become something of a tradition for Game of Thrones fans. It's been more than 15 years since A Dance with Dragons arrived in bookstores, and despite countless updates, the sixth installment of A Song of Ice and Fire still doesn't have a release date. That hasn't stopped Martin from expanding Westeros elsewhere, of course, with House of the Dragon and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms introducing audiences to different generations of the Seven Kingdoms. And it turns out the author has been spending some of his time working on another story that should make fans of the latter particularly happy.

Martin is officially working on a fourth Dunk and Egg novella, according to A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker, even as fans continue waiting for The Winds of Winter. Speaking with THR, Parker confirmed that Martin has been developing another adventure featuring Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire, Egg.

Book four, which George is working on, takes place in a very cool location.

Although Parker didn't identify the setting, Martin previously revealed that the fourth novella would take place at Winterfell. In a 2014 blog post, he explained that the story would involve a collection of formidable Stark women known as the She-Wolves of Winterfell.

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Westeros/Quizzes/Your House

Collider QuizWhich Game of Thrones
House Are You?8 Questions · 5 Great HousesFive great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties, and your nature, truly lie.The Five Houses

Stark

Lannister

Targaryen

Baratheon

Tyrell

Find Your House

Council 01 / 080% Sworn

Question 01HONOR

01Someone powerful is acting dishonorably and everyone knows it. What do you do?In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house.

ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honor means anything, it has to mean something when it's costly.BUse it. Information about someone else's dishonor is leverage, and leverage is power.CAct decisively to correct it, with or without the approval of those around me.DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom maneuvering.ENavigate carefully. Build alliances, apply quiet pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable.

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Next Question

Council 02 / 0812% Sworn

Question 02STRENGTH

02What is the source of your power?Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours?

AThe loyalty of people who trust me, earned over generations, not bought with gold.BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to use both without sentiment.CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable.DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to cross.ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs.

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Council 03 / 0825% Sworn

Question 03LOYALTY

03Who do you truly fight for?Strip away the banners and the words. The honest answer tells you everything.

AMy family and my people, those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything.BMy family, the ones who share my name, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me.CMy cause, a vision larger than any single person, including me.DMyself, and those few who've proven themselves worth standing beside.EMy house: its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I'm gone.

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Council 04 / 0838% Sworn

Question 04RIVALS

04How do you deal with your rivals?A house's method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could.

AHonestly. I face them directly, and I give quarter when it's warranted.BThoroughly. I don't leave loose ends, and I don't make the same rival twice.CDecisively. Fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays.DHead-on. I'd rather settle a dispute in the open than behind closed doors.EElegantly. I prefer to make former rivals into allies, or at least into people who owe me something.

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Council 05 / 0850% Sworn

Question 05RULE

05What kind of ruler do you believe in?Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly.

AA just one. Someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear.BA capable one. Someone smart enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs.CA transformative one. Someone who doesn't just rule what exists but reshapes what's possible.DA strong one. Someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse.EA wise one. Someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a show of force.

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Council 06 / 0862% Sworn

Question 06LOSS

06You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond?How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory.

AWe grieve, properly and together, and then we endure, because endurance is what we do.BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely.CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don't soften us, they clarify what needs to happen next.DWe hit back. Grief and reckoning are the same motion in our house.EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we're ready, on our terms, not theirs.

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Council 07 / 0875% Sworn

Question 07WORDS

07Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe?Every house has a philosophy. This is yours.

AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect.BA Lannister always pays their debts, in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency.CI am of the dragon's line. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born.DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely, and we don't stop until it's done.EGrowing strong means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power.

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Council 08 / 0888% Sworn

Question 08THE THRONE

08The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do?The answer reveals not just your ambition but your character.

AClaim it only if the realm needs me to, and rule in a way that makes it worth having.BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself.CTake it. It was always meant to be mine. I feel that in my bones.DSeize it, with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked.EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there. Influence outlasts any single reign.

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Reveal My House

The Maester Has SpokenYour House Is

Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee, or don't. That's very much up to you.

The NorthHouse Stark“Winter Is Coming”Seat of WinterfellYou took the long view before anyone asked you to.

Winter Is Coming, and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view.Why You Belong Here

• You lead with honor even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having.
• Your loyalty to family and people runs deep, not as sentiment but as a code that doesn't bend when things get difficult.
• The North endures because Starks endure, not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the cold.
• You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf does not. You already know which one you are.

The Long ViewThe PackWinterfell

The WesterlandsHouse Lannister“Hear Me Roar”Seat of Casterly RockYou read the room before you walk into it.

You understand the game: its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology.Why You Belong Here

• You are sharper than most people realize, and you have learned to use that gap to your advantage.
• A Lannister always pays their debts, and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order.
• You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway.
• The lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you.

Plays The GamePays DebtsCasterly Rock

The Iron ThroneHouse Targaryen“Fire and Blood”Seat of DragonstoneYou were never going to settle for the world as handed to you.

You carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore, the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it.Why You Belong Here

• You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most dangerous quality.
• The Targaryen words are not just words to you. They are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs.
• The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible.
• At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them.

DestinyTransformativeDragonstone

The StormlandsHouse Baratheon“Ours Is the Fury”Seat of Storm's EndYou arrive in a room and the room knows it.

You are a force: direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a disagreement. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them.Why You Belong Here

• Ours is the fury, and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally caution from those who underestimate what's behind it.
• You value strength and straight dealing. You'd rather know where you stand than navigate a web of courtly whispers.
• The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history, and then struggled with what came after.
• The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too.

DirectStraight DealingStorm's End

The ReachHouse Tyrell“Growing Strong”Seat of HighgardenPower arrives with flowers and good wine.

You understand that power does not always announce itself, that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn't quite reach the eyes.Why You Belong Here

• Growing Strong is your house's motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts.
• You are charming by choice and calculating by nature, a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter.
• The Tyrells fed King's Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne, and they were arguably more powerful for it.
• You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is.

PatientCharmingHighgarden

Where Your Loyalty Lies

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'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' Has Big Plans Beyond Season 2

The news also arrives as HBO continues developing A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which stars Peter Claffey (Bad Sisters) as Ser Duncan the Tall and Dexter Sol Ansell (The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes) as Egg. Parker has also said that it's the aim of the production team to follow the characters across several stages of their lives, potentially allowing the younger cast members to age naturally, so they don't need to recast. Which is only fair, because Ansell is wonderful in his role as Egg.

Five is the last story point of Egg as a boy. So it's a very natural ending place for us to take a break and come back when Dexter is older. So then we can do Egg the Prince, do some politics, do some fun stuff in Summerhall and King's Landing, and get a different vibe where they're not on the road all the time. So if the show wraps and people are still OK with everything we're doing and there's still an appetite, let the show evolve along with our leads, with myself and with the rest of our creative team as we grow older and the world changes and we want to say different things. I think that would be a lovely way to tell a story about these two guys through the course of their lives.

And when asked whether he would consider recasting Egg with an older performer, Parker made his preference clear. "No. Dexter is our Egg. Or, at least, Dexter is my Egg — I have no controlling interest in this property. But Dexter and Peter are my guys."

The first season of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is streaming on HBO Max, with Season 2 expected in the first half of 2027. Stay tuned to Collider for all the latest news and updates on the biggest and best movies and shows heading to your favorite streaming platforms soon.

• 

  Peter Claffey

  Ser Duncan 'Dunk' the Tall

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  Dexter Sol Ansell

  Egg

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is based on George R. R. Martin's Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas and is set around 100 years before the events of Game of Thrones. It follows Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire, Egg, who would later become King Aegon V Targaryen.