Literally hundreds of people came together over the past 10 years to create HBO‘s most successful series of all time, Game of Thrones. But, of course, there would be no Thrones if it weren’t for George R.R. Martin, whose A Song of Ice and Fire novels inspired the series. In addition to receiving producer credits and source material credits for the entire series, Martin also wrote four episodes of the show: “The Pointy End” (season one), “Blackwater” (season two), “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” (season three), and “The Lion and the Rose” (season four).
In honor of the show’s finale on Sunday, Martin took to his official blog yesterday — which is called “Not a Blog” — for a farewell tribute to the show that launched him and his novels into super-stardom. In about 1,200 words, he expressed his gratitude for producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the cast, the crew, the HBO team, and everyone else who contributed to the show.
More importantly, though, Martin addressed the final two novels in the A Song of Ice and Fire series: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring. Fans have been anxiously awaiting these final novels for eight years now, and Martin promises they are still on the way.
“And I’m writing,” he says in the post. “Winter is coming, I told you, long ago … and so it is. THE WINDS OF WINTER is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done. I won’t say when, I’ve tried that before, only to burn you all and jinx myself, … but I will finish it, and then will come A DREAM OF SPRING.”
Then, he addressed the question we all want to know the answer to: Will the books end in the same way as the show? Martin says both yes and no. To be more precise, he says “Well, … yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.”
This cryptic answer, Martin says, is because he will have more time to explore the story than the series did — 3,000 manuscript pages for the final books versus just six hours of TV for the final season. He will explore the fate of characters who never made it into the show, such as Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, and Aegon VI. Their very presence, he explains, will impact the story and the ending. However, Martin doesn’t want to say which will be the “real ending,” the books or the show. That, apparently, is for fans and the internet to decide.
Martin also touched on his other post-Thrones plans. Apparently, he has five shows in development at HBO (including GoT spinoff series), two at Hulu, and one on the History Channel. He’s also working on some feature projects and has plans for some short films. Basically, he’s got a lot going on.
Check out Martin’s full farewell tribute here.
Photo: Not a Blog
