The first episode of HBO‘s Game of Thrones spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms has arrived, and along with it the latest chapter in the history of Westeros. And given all that, one of your major questions is probably: when does A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms take place in the Game of Thrones timeline? Specifically, in relation to both the original series, and the other prequel TV show, House of the Dragon?
About 100 years before Game of Thrones. Article over! Easy!
Just kidding, though yes, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms takes place about a century before the Starks had several bad days in a row on Game of Thrones. But there is more to say about the A Song of Ice and Fire continuity, if you’re interested in something beyond a simple number.
To get more in the weeds about it, the first season of the new series takes place over a compressed timeline during the year 209 AC. Probably. I say “probably” because the timeline of the books by George R.R. Martin and the timeline of the TV shows is different, for a variety of reasons mostly down to tweaks here and there for ages of characters and whatnot. Specifically because a lot of the characters in the books are children having sex, and you can’t do that on television. The dates are close, mind you, we’re just talking a few years off in most cases. But going by the book timeline is not the official show timeline, necessarily.
That said: In Westeros, “AC” is short for “After the Conquest,” meaning AKOTSK takes place 209 years after Aegon the Conqueror was crowned the first ever Lord of the Seven Kingdoms and sat the Iron Throne. Also of note (since we are in the weeds, after all), we’ve never seen Aegon I on any of the TV shows — though an Aegon’s Conquest TV show has been in discussion/development for a long time… Most recently by The Batman co-writer Mattson Tomlin in 2024, though it hasn’t officially been confirmed or greenlit by HBO.
Okay, back to the dates. Let’s start with House of the Dragon first. HBO initially stated the show takes place 300 years before Game of Thrones, but that’s not accurate. Instead, thanks to the opening title card from the series, we know exactly when that begins: 172 years before “the death of the Mad King, Aerys, and the birth of his daughter, Princess Daenerys Targaryen.” So when does that actually set things? Due to the age finagling, Season 1 of House of the Dragon takes place over two decades, starting in 112 AC (minus a prologue which is set in 101 AC), and ends in 132 AC.
Season 2, meanwhile, is a much more compressed timeline. While we don’t know for sure, it’s likely the entire season takes place in 132 AC, setting up for an event called The Dance of Dragons in Season 3 — which in the books takes place in 129 AC to 131 AC, so we’re running pretty close there.
Point being, as of the end of Season 2 of House of the Dragon, we’re about 77 years away from the events of AKOTSK, give or take a year. We won’t spoil what happens in House of the Dragon, or several other key details about AKOTSK itself, but suffice to say we’re a ruler or two down the road from where we are in House of the Dragon; all that happened as far as Dunk and Egg are concerned, long ago.
What about Game of Thrones? The original series kicks off in 298 AC. That’s the definitive start date when the White Walkers reemerge in the prologue of the series. So while the bulk of the action of Game of Thrones takes place over many years, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set approximately 89 years before Game of Thrones. It also takes place during the rule of Daeron Targaryen II, which lasted from 184 AC to 209 AC. Er, uhoh.
So got that? House of the Dragon is currently up to 132 AC going into Season 3, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is in 209 AC, and Game of Thrones begins in 298 AC. As for whether we’ll see any characters we know in this newest series? Walder Frey is about one year old at this point, so fingers crossed we meet a baby who is a total jerk.
A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms Premiere Dates And Episode Guide:
New episodes of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms premiere Sundays on HBO and HBO Max, at 10pm ET. The season will premiere with one episodes on January 18, followed by one new episode weekly until the season finale.
Here’s what we expect from the full list of episodes in A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms with premiere dates.
- Sunday, January 18, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 1
- Sunday, January 25, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 2
- Sunday, February 1, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 3
- Sunday, February 8, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 4
- Sunday, February 15, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 5
- Sunday, February 22, 2026: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, Season 1, Episode 6 *Season Finale*
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