A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ Peter Claffey on Crafting a New Game of Thrones Hero

This article contains spoilers for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms episode 1 “The Hedge Knight.”

The first episode of Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms opens in suitably epic fashion.

The hulking Ser Duncan the Tall a.k.a. “Dunk” (Peter Claffey) digs a pauper’s grave as a torrent of rain pelts his massive figure. He then picks up the shriveled corpse of his knightly master Ser Arlan of Pennytree (Danny Webb) and gently places the old man into the fertile Reach soil. Having laid his good friend to rest, Dunk handles Ser Arlan’s sword and imagines what kind of future he can cut with it.

“It fits my grip as well as it ever did his… and there is a tourney at Ashford Meadow,” he muses as composer Ramin Djawadi’s iconic Game of Thrones theme swells. Right before the familiar “Duh nuh nuh nuh nuh nuhhhs” crescendo, however, the scene abruptly cuts to Dunk violently spraying diarrhea out of his butt.

A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms isn’t your granddaddy’s Game of Thrones. This is a looser experience… not entirely unlike Ser Duncan’s stool. While George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” fantasy books are certainly not lacking in jokes, the HBO series they inspired is often remembered for its brutal twists, betrayals, and a veritable rainbow of deadly weddings. Equally violent prequel spinoff House of the Dragon has done little to soften the Seven Kingdoms’ gritty reputation. Now, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, based on Martin’s three “Tales of Dunk and Egg” prequel novellas, is ready to put the author’s humor front and center

“George’s writing is incredibly witty and incredibly funny,” A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker tells Den of Geek. “A lot of people say [Tales of Dunk and Egg] is funnier than the other stuff and I actually don’t believe that it’s funnier than the main series. It’s funny in a different way. A lot of George’s underdog characters have a very sharp wit. Dunk doesn’t have that to fall back on.”

The lovably dumb Ser Duncan is indeed a powerful tool for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to use in finding a softer side of Westeros. In a franchise known for its moral shades of gray, the lowly hedge knight from Flea Bottom might be the most purely “good” character we’ve met yet. Or at least that’s how his actor sees him.

“That good-hearted nature and moral compass that he has makes it difficult to navigate in a world like Westeros,” Claffey says. “He’s a protagonist who isn’t seeking to sit on the Iron Throne or to be a Lord Commander of anything. He’s just a hedge knight who’s trying to survive and work by the values that were bestowed upon him by Ser Arlan. I think that’s a lovely sort of individual to meet in this world that’s so ruthless.”

Game of Thrones‘ historical roster of complex characters has provided many juicy opportunities for very talented performers over the years. The simple goodness of Dunk, however, presents its own kind of acting challenge. And according to Parker, Claffey’s status as a former-rugby-player-turned-novice-thespian made him a uniquely good fit.

“This is a huge job to take on for any actor of any level and Peter has risen to that challenge and more. I’m just so proud of him,” Parker says. “He’s such a charismatic individual but he’s also just like Dunk. He’s got an inner anxiety about him. When he came into the first meeting he was like ‘my palms are sweating’ and I’m just like ‘this is perfect, this is what we wanted.'”

Of course, getting to work with striking material like Dunk’s rain-soaked grave digging certainly helps. Though the moment is eventually undercut by the contents of Dunk’s upset stomach, the burial of Ser Arlan serves as an appropriately mythic introduction for this unlikely hero. Claffey appreciated the significance of the scene, which was shot close to the end of production.

“There is always something quite epic about standing in rain,” he says. “Feeling the raindrops fall off your hair and being completely soaked to the skin while giving this monologue – there is an epic sort of feeling to it for sure.”

In true Dunk fashion, however, Claffey wasn’t concerned only about his performance or comfort.

“That rain that they provide in the rain machine is always completely freezing and Danny Webb who is playing Ser Arlan was down on the ground. I was really anxious for them to get him out because he’s an older dude. Very fit man but he’s in his sixties. I was like ‘You alright, Danny?’ He was like ‘All good, mate.’ And he pulled out these sweets we have called Percy Pigs and asked ‘You want a Percy Pig, mate?’ I was like ‘Yeah, cheers.'”

Sharing a feast of pork with Ser Arlan? Dude really is Dunk.

New episodes of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms premiere Sundays at 10 p.m. ET on HBO and HBO Max, culminating with the finale on February 22.