A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Creator Reveals How Real That Poop Scene Was in the Show’s Premiere: ‘It’s Not a Fake’
If we’re talking about surprising TV openers, this one probably takes the cake…or toilet. The Game of Thrones prequel, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, included a shitty introduction. We don’t mean it’s bad at all; we mean it quite literally.
In the opening scene of the new HBO Max series, Dunk (Peter Claffey) takes up the sword of the knight that he served as squire. The audience then hears the iconic Game of Thrones theme song intensify in the background as he recognizes his calling. However, that gets interrupted by a cut to Dunk pooping graphically behind a tree. But what does that exactly mean?
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Poop Scene Explained
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, show creator Ira Parker talked about how it’s a poignant introduction to Dunk’s journey as a knight alongside his own squire Aegon “Egg” Targaryen. “A lot of people are gonna take it the wrong way,” Parker told the publication. “It was never meant as a cheap gag to just show a butt that’s [pooping] on television, that we really are trying to get into as fully as possible Dunk’s headspace, which is so interior in the novellas that we have to find creative ways to get out there, whether it’s Dunk talking to the horses, whether it’s in conversations with Egg [Dexter Sol Ansell], or whether it’s seeing Dunk’s nerves manifest themselves physically as they do here in that way.”
“Like so many of us, when we have those feelings of greatness that call to something else and it’s going to be really difficult and challenging, we are soon then hit with the reality of doing that,” Parker continued. “The dream falls away and we get butterflies in our stomach, that feeling of nervousness, which Dunk then finds himself very quickly in an unheroic, crouched position.”
He then described the Game of Thrones score as “the ultimate hero music,” which led to its inclusion. “That’s the ultimate call. That’s what he aspires towards. But he’s not that yet. He’s not the hero. He’s not capable of that yet, and he knows that inside of himself. So that’s why his body reacts the way that it does.”
The scene, however, caught Game of Thrones creator and writer George R.R. Martin off guard, even moreso because it wasn’t in his original novellas. “Yeah, that was a bit of a surprise,” Martin, who also executive produces the show, told The Hollywood Reporter. “Not to say that my characters don’t take shits, but I normally don’t write about them at any length. When I saw the rough cut, I wrote, ‘What is this? Where did this come from? I don’t know if we really need the shit.’ But [showrunner Ira Parker] liked it for whatever reason.”
“But then the reality of doing this, how difficult it is, how scary it is — that turns his guts to water,” Parker also clarified to the publication. He’s just a nervy kid with a nervous stomach — just like me. And as badly as you want to do something great, as soon as you actually have to go off and do it, it becomes trickier. And that’s what the whole season is for him.”
As for whether that was actually Peter Claffey’s real butt in the scene, Parker told Variety: “A magician never gives it away. I will say that we don’t have the budget for fake anything on this show. Very, very little is done fake. We’re not crazy. It’s not a fake up there shitting on screen, that’s his butt.”
The series itself takes place between House of the Dragon and the main story of Game of Thrones. While it might take place in a fantasy world, it’s good to know that even knights poop when they’re nervous.
