When is it time for Game of Thrones fans to fear the winds of winter?

Summary

• George RR Martin is 13 years behind schedule with The Winds of Winter, causing concern among fans.
• The final two books in the series, including A Dream of Spring, may face significant publication delays.
• Martin's original plan was a trilogy, but the series has expanded, which may have an impact on the final resolution of the story.

Winter is coming to George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire saga, but with the agonizingly long 13 years since the last book was published, fans fear that he may never get around to writing the end of the War of the Five Kings. Although game of thrones The TV series brought its own ending in 2019, there is still much to tell in book form.

Martin outlined his plan to write seven books A Song of Ice and Fire series, with the last two entries being The winds of winter and A dream of spring. The author is open about falling behind in his writing The winds of winter. Despite claims that he has no plans to retire, his advanced age and previous admissions have raised concerns among readers over the last two posts.

Where is The Winds of Winter?

Martin started writing The winds of winter in 2010 at the latest, with an expected start from A dance with dragons' cliffhanger ends. Book five ended with Daenerys fleeing troubled Meereen on Drogon's back, Jon Snow being stabbed by his own men of the Night's Watch, and Varys revealing his plot to put Aegon Targaryen on the Iron Throne. Although things played out differently for the missing characters in the show, these events roughly coincide with Season 5 of the HBO series.

Martin's original plan was to write A Song of Ice and Fire as a trilogy, with the only books being game of thrones, A dance with dragonsand The winds of winter. This again emphasizes the apparent importance The winds of winter and the story it will tell. This would also mean that all the books were published earlier game of thrones it even started broadcasting. Instead, 28 years have passed since the first book was published, and the end is still in sight.

The frustrating fact that A dance with dragons running concurrently with 2005 A feast for crows means that other dangling plot threads, such as the fate of Brienne of Tarth at the hands of Lady Stoneheart and Arya Stark being blinded by the Faceless Men, remain unresolved. Martin teased fans by releasing 11 chapters The winds of winter during the years when Theon was captured by Stannis Baratheon A dance with dragons' paperback. He stopped publishing chapters in 2018 because he didn't want to give more.

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin admitted that he was 13 years late winds of winter but he doesn't know how it happened. Reiterating that the novel was a priority, he explained:

“That's still a priority. A lot of people are already writing me obituaries. [They’re saying] “Oh, it never ends. Maybe they're right. I don't know. I'm living right now! I feel quite vital!”

This prompted further complaints from readers who again point out how The winds of winter she was not the priority he had previously promised she would be. As well as take time away from writing the sixth book Fire and bloodhe was working on it House of the Dragonhelped develop Knight of the Seven Kingdomsand is working on a film based on the late Howard Waldrop Ugly chickens.

All of this comes along with world building for FromSoftware Elden Ringwhich some claim to have come The winds of wintercosts. Considering he had written four chapters by June 2010, it shows how slow progress has been over the past 14 years. The promising 2014 and 2016 release dates are long gone, and Martin's critics will point to his infamous February 2016 quote when he promised readers of his Not a Blog website:

“I won't write anything until I deliver Winds of Winter. Teleplays, scripts, short stories, introductions, forewords, nothing.”

He once told fans they could jail him if he wasn't done by July 2020, but almost four and a half years later, there's still no sign of the mythical manuscript. Although Martin jokes about people thinking he might die sooner The winds of winter is published, others look even further ahead.

Game of Thrones fans are still dreaming of spring

When readers close the book The winds of winter, A dream of spring expected to be even more epic. Even if The winds of winter got a surprise release in 2025 if Martin took that long to write A dream of springit wouldn't come out until 2039. Aside from George RR Martin entering the 90s, a large number of fans would likely miss out on how the story ends.

In a 2022 update on his website, Martin explained how the books will be diverted game of thronesA controversial ending that makes sense due to the lack of seemingly important characters like Victarion Greyjoy, Arianne Martell and Jon Connington:

“But what I've noticed more and more lately is my gardening, which is taking me further and further away from the TV series. Yes, some of the things you've seen on HBO in Game of Thrones you'll see in The Winds of Winter (though maybe not in quite the same way)… but most of the rest will be completely different.”

This is no secret game of thronesThe ending was divisive, with over 1.5 million people signing a petition for a Season 8 remake. The winds of winter's release is even more important because it will give critics their first real taste of where things could be headed.

In Martin's original plan, the final book would have focused on the Others, who are the book version of the White Walkers. They were seen as a real threat to Westeros that the show failed to capitalize on. Many have criticized Season 8, thinking that it should have focused on Cersei and the battle for King's Landing in the first half, before moving on to the epic battle with the White Walkers at Winterfell in the last few episodes. Martin hasn't revealed how he plans to end the books, but many expect The Others to be the de facto big villain. Still, that doesn't mean Daenerys Targaryen won't get her Mad Queen arc.

Like both The winds of winter and A dream of spring are set to be longer than the previous books, this gives a glimpse of how long they will be. There are theories that Martin cooked up something special and may have written it The winds of winter and A dream of spring at the same time. In a more recent July 2024 post on his blog, Martin cryptically warned:

When Winds of Winter is done, word won't leak, there WILL be a big announcement…where and when I can't say.

Optimists hope that even if the last two books don't come out at the same time, Martin secretly wrote the end of the story in case something happened to him. Meanwhile, disgruntled readers have taken to ChatGPT to create examples of how they think Martin will end the sordid saga. With the man himself warning that fan favorites who died in game of thrones they survive another day and some survivors don't make it A dream of springThe last pages readers are preparing for A Song of Ice and FireThe latest posts are as shocking as the HBO live-action adaptation.