A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms creators decided to take a slightly different approach for the closing song and used Tennessee Ernie Ford’s Sixteen Tons to reflect Dunk’s distinct heroism. In a new interview, showrunner Ira Parker revealed how George R.R. Martin‘s connection with the song gave them all the confirmation they needed to use the song.
Quick read:
- The creators wanted to use Sixteen Tons as the closing song instead of Dan Romer’s score.
- George R.R. Martin’s personal connection to the song convinced the creators to use it.
- Dan Romer gave Ira Parker exactly what he was looking for in the score.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner on George R.R. Martin’s personal connection with Sixteen Tons
George R.R. Martin (Image: Not A Blog)
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ score is distinctive from the other two shows in HBO’s Game of Thrones franchise. Instead of a big, orchestral score, the creators of the latest prequel show wanted one that felt its own, with a touch of heart and its signature unpolished feel. Dan Romer delivered exactly that.
However, the closing song is not from Romer’s score. Instead, it is Sixteen Tons, a song about the life of a coal miner. Ira Parker revealed the positive sign that sealed the song for the finale in an interview with IndieWire on the Filmmaker Toolkit Podcast.
He said, “I remember when I first showed it to George [R.R. Martin], he said that a good friend of his who had just passed, actually the ringtone that would come up on [Martin’s] phone for him was ‘Sixteen Tons.’ If there was ever any doubt about doing that, it vanished for us in that moment.”
Parker added that he hoped that fans enjoyed it. He also noted that the use of this classical song makes Game of Thrones a little different, which he loved. Further, he mentioned that Sixteen Tons might as well be Dunk’s theme song.
How Dan Romer helped shape A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms’ score
Dunk and Egg in A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms | Image: HBO
Ira Parker said that he knew that they could not use the big orchestral score for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms because it does not have those elements of a great epic fantasy. He explained, “We needed to get smaller and simpler, a little grittier, and what I really found with [composer] Dan Romer is that he also gave us this other element I had been searching for the whole time and unable to sort of put my finger on it.”
This element was whimsy. Since the show has a Western feel to it, Romer brought that whimsy through whistling. Parker expressed his love for it, saying, “[The whistling] is so beautiful and exactly what I imagine the inside of Dunk’s head sounds like.” The whistling notes can be heard in the final episode during the title card correction of “A Knight of the Nine Kingdoms.”
