Exclusive | ‘A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ creator challenges critical ‘GoT’ fans: ‘Enjoy bashing us’

He’s the newest Maester in Westeros. 

Ira Parker, the creator / showrunner for “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,” HBO’s third show in the “Game of Thrones” franchise, received a lot of direction from George R. R. Martin.

“I spent a week out there at the beginning of this whole process, in Santa Fe [New Mexico, where Martin lives] just throwing around ideas with him,” Parker exclusively told The Post. 

“[Martin was] pretty much always my first read on any script,” he added of the famed author. “I would send him scripts, even before I sent them to HBO. We’d have great conversations about them. I told him pretty early on that I wouldn’t put anything in that he didn’t want me to.”

Premiering Sunday, Jan. 18 on HBO (10 p.m.), “A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” is based on Martin’s “Tales of Dunk and Egg” novellas. HBO has already renewed it for a second season.

Martin has stated the novella that Season 1 is based on (“The Hedge Knight”) is “the best thing he’s ever written,” Parker explained. “So, I wanted to make sure that we got it right and that everybody got to enjoy what he enjoys about these novellas.” 

Set around a hundred years before the events of “Game of Thrones,” the show follows Ser Duncan the Tall, a k a Dunk, (Peter Claffey) a hedge knight, (a nomadic knight with no land or money), and Egg, (Dexter Sol Ansell), a young boy who becomes his squire. 

The show is lighter in tone than “GoT,” and also smaller in scope, as Season 1 is a mere six episodes that run 30 to 40 minutes apiece. 

“It’s not that we don’t go to the deep dark places that ‘GoT’ does. But, it gives you a different sort of character to root for,” Parker explained. 

“Game of Thrones” had underdog characters too, such as Peter Dinklage’s Tyrion, but Parker pointed out that he had “sharp wit.”

“[Dunk] definitely does not have that. So, he’s a different sort of underdog character,” he said. 

“We wanted to make sure that the tone was a reflection of who Dunk is. He’s our only [point of view] character. And so it needed to feel unpolished, and vulgar at times, and also funny and bumbling.”

The creator said that Dunk tries to be, “a serious person, but he’s not. And he tries to be a hero, but he’s not. That’s hopefully a very relatable journey for a lot of people.” 

The “GoT” fans can be opinionated – just see the infamous fan petition to remake Season 8 of the original show after its series finale. Parker, however, isn’t worried about feedback. 

“Part of the fun of this job is knowing that people are going to weigh in…You want people to interact. You want to be part of the discussion. The worst is that you could just put something out there, and nobody ever talks about it.”

“If they have a violent response to it, then that’s their right. And I hope that they enjoy bashing us as much as possible on the Internet and anywhere else that they want to do that,” he told The Post. “It’s very much welcomed. We welcome all opinions here. We’re quite faithful to the novella. I think anyone who really loved those books will hopefully really like our show as well.” 

The original “GoT” also ran into trouble when it ran out of source material, since Martin notoriously hasn’t finished the books. 

“The nice part is that we know basically what happens to [Dunk and Egg] throughout their life. So, it’s not like we have to find an ending.”

“A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms” will have fewer “loose ends” to tie up than “GoT” — and it’s also “a lot less complicated.”

“Its about two boys, basically, who meet each other and help each other along the way. It’ s a father / son dynamic, a brother dynamic, a mentor / mentee situation. I think it’s a very human story, and it’s a simple story. We know what the end points are, and we know certain things that happen to them within their life. So, we’re in no danger of going off course.” 

Currently, there are three novellas in the “Tales of Dunk and Egg” series. 

“The truth is that it could very reasonably be three seasons. Do the three novellas,” Parker revealed. “George is actively – I don’t know about actively, but he is writing another novella for this series. They’re only 90 pages or so. So, who knows, we could have another one!” 

The creator added, “I love writing in this world. I hope we get to do it as long as an audience lets us do it. We haven’t aired yet, so we’ll see what people think of us.”