A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Trailer Introduces Two Very Different Targaryens

By its very nature, Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is going to be a very different beast than the shows we’ve seen in this universe before. With its lighter tone, more limited scope, shortened runtime, and generally well-meaning central character who is charmingly inept rather than ruthlessly self-centered, it feels like a breath of fresh air in a fictional landscape that could really use one. 

The series’ final trailer fully leans into the fun of highlighting all those differences, once again highlighting the show’s humor, its mercifully brighter color palette, and the delightful if occasionally cloddish goodness that epitomizes Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey). But what sets this clip apart is that it gives us our first look at Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ take on the Targaryens, and it’s quite different than any we’ve seen before. 

Multiple members of the infamous dragon family appear in George R.R. Martin’s “Dunk and Egg” novellas, though, for the most part, they’re less central to the action than you probably expect. The story is set roughly 90 years before the events of Game of Thrones, and the Targaryen family, at this point, is in fairly significant disarray. Thanks to the loss of their dragons, a handful of weak and/or ineffectual rulers, and yet another intra-family civil war that leaves the seven kingdoms in ruins, they’re hardly seen as the near-gods they once were. Don’t believe me? Imagine anyone referring to Daemon or Rhaenyra on House of the Dragon as tyrants and incestuous aliens the way Raymun does in this trailer and not getting immediately beheaded. That is a family in decline.

In the world of Dunk and Egg, the Targaryens largely occupy the fringes of the story, which focuses primarily on the lives of the smallfolk scratching out a living on the edges of their endless wars and family squabbles. But the trailer does introduce the two Targaryens you really need to know in Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: Prince Baelor “Breakspear” Targaryen (Bertie Carvel) and his nephew, Aerion “Brightflame” Targaryen (Finn Bennett). If it’s not immediately evident from the clip, these two men are virtually nothing alike, and that’s something that’s absolutely going to come into play multiple times during this story. 

Baelor, for starters, doesn’t look anything like a Targaryen, despite his status as the heir to his father, King Daeron II. The black sheep of the clan, thanks to the darker hair and complexion he inherited from his Dornish mother, Myriah Martell, he’s a remarkably fair and just leader, level-headed, intelligent, and generally great in a way that most assuredly does not run in his family. In the novella, he speaks up for Dunk on more than one occasion, and in the trailer, he seems prepared to at least give him some advice about how to avoid Aerion’s evident wrath. 

Aerion, on the other hand, is… pretty much exactly the kind of character we picture when we think of a Targaryen: Platinum blond, violent, and clearly obsessed with the family legacy. (He will go on to become known as Aerion the Monstrous if you want a sneak peek at how that all turns out.) Sporting an admittedly badass dragon-head helm, Aerion certainly looks the part of a Targaryen warrior in the vein of House of the Dragon’s Daemon (Matt Smith), but when you consider the fact that he’s still dressing up like this decades after the last dragon died to compete in a joust at a market town in the Reach, well… it all just all becomes sort of sad, more than anything else. 

How these two Targaryens and the larger battles for the Iron Throne that their stories represent will intersect with Ser Dunk’s onscreen remains to be seen. But at least we don’t have to wait very long to find out for ourselves.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premieres Sunday, January 18 at 10 p.m. ET on HBO.