Even authors can be upset with the adaptions of their work. I’m sure many of us remember that fateful day when we watched the final episode of Game of Thrones and thought, “WHAT? This can’t be the actual ending?” Well, it appears George R.R. Martin feels the same way as his viewers.
In an interview with WTWChicago, Martin explains that when the show debuted in 2011, he was almost five books ahead of the television series. “I mean, I had I a five-book head start — and these are gigantic books,” he recalls, “I never thought they’d catch up with me. But they did.”
Part of the problem appears to be that a television series works quicker than, say, a film series. Television works in quarters, with certain shows making a fall debut, and successful shows returning to homes on a set schedule. With the kind of pressure that comes from adapting books to episodes, we can imagine that production had to work quickly and efficiently to keep up with the demand from fans.
Keeping this in mind, the final three seasons of the HBO series are merely based on Martin’s outlines and ideas for his final two books. No information is available regarding when The Winds of Winter will be released, but Martin has repeatedly expressed his wish for the sixth book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series to be published in 2021. Martin has also admitted that he hasn’t even truly begun writing A Dream of Spring. Martin says that perhaps his own writer’s block is what contributed to HBO taking liberties on his content.
However, Martin does conclude that he is not letting the show’s ending sway him in any way and that fans will “see my ending when that comes out.” Hopefully, knowing that Martin has his own ideas will give some peace of mind to Game of Thrones fans who were disappointed with HBO’s ending. We just, unfortunately, have to stay patient until the final books make their appearance!