George R.R. Martin "Loved" A "Rough Cut" Of The New Dunk and Egg Series

George R.R. Martin has visited the set of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight, the latest spin-off attached to the Game of Thrones universe, and despite only viewing a “rough cut” of the first episode, has revealed his love for the series.

“Dunk and Egg – Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell, respectively – looked as if they just walked out of the pages of my book, and the chemistry between them was just perfect,” Martin revealed in an entry on his blog.

“A few weeks after I got back home, I saw a rough cut of the first episode. I loved it. I can’t wait to see more.”

The title of the spin-off remains “under discussion,” but Martin believes the network has whittled it down to a couple of strong contenders: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms or, more quaintly, the second option, with considerably less word count involved: The Hedge Knight.

Martin further confirmed that filming had wrapped “not long ago” for the spin-off. Ira Parker [showrunner] and the team, Martin writes, are now onto the post-production stage and “looking toward a debut some time next year. Spring, I am hoping, but that’s just a guess; no date has been set yet.”

The spin-off is inspired by George R. R. Martin’s Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas, set within the same universe as his A Song of Ice and Fire novels. The show is set roughly 100 years before the events of Game of Thrones.

House of the Dragon stars Matt Smith, Emma D’Arcy, Olivia Cooke, Ewan Mitchell, Eve Best, Harry Collett, Steve Toussaint, Phil Saban, Savannah Steyn, Sonoya Mizuno, Ty Tennant, Rhys Ifans, Fabien Frankel, Freddie Fox, Matthew Needham, Gayle Rankin, and Jefferson Hall.