In the wake of Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS trilogy, people couldn't seem to get enough of the fantasy genre. Some films were abysmal failures (THE GOLDEN COMPASS, ERAGON), some were excellent (PAN'S LABYRINTH, HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON). However as tends to happen, the market became too saturated and the fantasy craze eased back a bit to be replaced by the MCU.
Yet it would be incorrect to say that the passion for the fantasy genre died out entirely. People are always thirsty for epic stories no matter what medium they happen to fall in. Enter HBO's 2011 smash hit Game of Thrones. The program, based on the popular fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin, was a rousing success for the cable channel. For the better part of the next decade, Game of Thrones became the water cooler show across the world and launched the careers of Kit Harington, Emilia Clarke, Maisie Williams, and Sophie Turner.
Concluding one of the most successful shows in the history of television proved to be a difficult task for David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. While I thoroughly enjoyed last year's final season, plenty of people did not. People complained about the perceived poor writing, rushed storyline, and Daenerys Targaryen's (Emilia Clarke's) "unearned" transformation into the de facto villain. In fact, audiences were so upset with the final season that an online petition began calling for HBO to rewrite and reshoot the final season. Despite this brash display of fan entitlement, HBO declined to acquiesce to the populace.
To be fair to Benioff and Weiss, the pair were basically flying blind for the last three seasons. Although George R.R. Martin had provided the broad strokes on how the books would end, there was very little in terms of specifics to go off of. Martin never anticipated the show catching up with his novels which left David Benioff and D.B. Weiss having to navigate the ending on their own. Now whether or not you agree with the narrative choices and the ultimate conclusion to the series, George R.R. Martin is here to tell you that how the series of books conclude will not exactly line up with the show.
Speaking to the German publication newspaper Welt, Martin reiterated that the book ending would be somewhat different than the show stating, "People know an ending—but not the ending. The makers of the TV show had overtaken me, which I didn’t expect.” While this is decidedly cryptic and fairly vague I think it's inevitable that the ending of the final book will be different than the HBO program. Although Dany may still end up being the villain and Bran the king, how we get there could be markedly different and given Martin's writing talents, much more cohesive.
When exactly George R.R. Martin actually concludes the series is anyone's guess. This July will mark nine – count 'em – nine years since the last book, A Dance With Dragons,was released. There are still two novels to come including the forthcoming The Winds of Winter and the final novel A Dream of Spring. According to Martin both books are somewhere in the range of fifteen hundred manuscript pages a piece. Whoo! Now that's a doorstop.
While the pubic waits in anticipation of Martin's next book, fans of the Game of Thrones universe won't have to wait too much longer for a return to Westeros. HBO's House of the Dragon debuts on HBO Max in 2022. The series, based on Martin's book Fire and Blood, will be set 300 years before the events of Game of Thrones and chronicle the conquering of Westeros by Aegon Targaryen, first of his name.
So what do you guys think? Do you anticipate Martin's conclusion to be vastly different than the show? Did you like the final season of Game of Thrones? Will The Winds of Winter ever come out? Sound off in the comments below!