George R. R. Martin: A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms' Egg

George R. R. Martin rarely minces words. So when the fantasy titan told Dexter Sol Ansell, the young actor playing Egg, that he "just jumped out of the books," the industry took notice. This is a massive endorsement from the creator of the Dunk and Egg novellas, the source material for HBO's upcoming A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms — a Game of Thrones prequel.

Ansell himself even joked that graphic novel adaptations of Egg, drawn years before his birth, could have been based on him. Playing the clever squire, secretly a Targaryen prince, was a demanding role. Ansell admitted the challenge of balancing Egg's "Targaryen-ness and squire-ness." This level of authentic casting, with a creator's explicit blessing, sets a promising tone for what's sure to be a closely watched adaptation.