By A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker states that selecting Peter Claffey and Dexter Sol Ansell for the forthcoming Game of Thrones spin-off was the simplest choice he’s ever encountered.
“Your casting director provides you with numerous auditions. They sift through thousands upon thousands and present you with 10 at a time, followed by another 10,” Parker elaborated during a NYCC roundtable with GamesRadar+. “Casting package number one, number one on the list: Dexter Sol Ansell. Clicked on it, viewed the audition, and [he’s] impeccable, fantastic. So that was straightforward. I recall asking the casting director, so what’s the next step? Do we just sign him up? What should we do now?
“[The casting director responded] ‘I believe we should proceed and meet other individuals and do this. Of course, yes, we embarked on months of these procedures and chemistry readings and everything, but to come all the way back to him…It just seemed like it had to occur.”
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms (initially titled A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight) draws inspiration from George R.R. Martin’s Dunk and Egg novella series (which encompasses three novellas in total, with three seasons planned thus far). It chronicles the exploits of Ser Duncan the Tall (Claffey), a former squire intent on becoming a great knight, who forms an unlikely bond with a destitute young boy named Egg (Ansell), who pleads to be his squire. I won’t spoil anything for you in case you aren’t acquainted with the tale, but let’s just say Egg isn’t who he seems to be…and Dunk finds himself confronting the Targaryen dynasty.
“Peter had performed some truly remarkable work on a Sharon Hogan show,” Parker continued. “And not much else that I could uncover, but I recall what our casting director remarked about him is that since he was somewhat new – he had just obviously transitioned from being a professional rugby player. He mentioned, ‘Every single time I see him, he is just exponentially superior to the last time.’ And that’s somewhat what you’re counting on to an extent when you’re seeking individuals who are unknowns. You simply want someone you believe will develop as swiftly as you need them to evolve.”
Claffey was a rugby union player for Galwegians RFC before embarking on his acting journey in 2022. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms signifies his debut leading role in a television series. Ansell, conversely, has been acting since he was merely two years old. He portrayed a young Coriolanus Snow in 2023’s The Hunger Games: A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes at the age of eight and would film his first leading role in a television series at the age of nine. During the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms panel at NYCC, Claffey described Ansell as “a 25-year-old in a nine-year-old’s physique.”
“We invited Peter in, you know, three, four, five times perhaps by the conclusion. And each time, it became abundantly clear to all of us that he was our Dunk. When we observed the two of them together for the final chemistry reading, I was seated there wit