‘Winds of Winter’ July Release Unlikely, George RR Martin Busy Working On Five ‘Game of Thrones’ New Shows


When George R.R. Martin said earlier this year that he had made some progress in writing The Winds of Winter, fans have anticipated that the book would be out by June or July, just in time before the Game of Thrones Season 7 premieres. However, recent updates reveal that it is unlikely that The Winds of Winter will hit the shelves in July as Martin is busy working on several projects.

Still working on TWOW

In his blog post, Martin’s latest update about The Winds of Winter is that he is still working on it. He assured fans that he would continue writing it until it’s done and added that he wishes he could clone himself or add more hours to his day. But for now, he has to juggle several projects, which include the five successor shows of Game of Thrones on HBO, Fire and Blood companion book of GoT,Wild Cards books, and other things he said he could not reveal, in addition to The Winds of Winter.

With that, those who have been waiting for five years (and counting), could only keep their fingers crossed that The Winds of Winter will be out before the year ends. So far, this is the longest wait in between his books; it’s been almost six years since the fifth installment, A Dance with Dragons, was released in July 2011. It took him five years and eight months to release that book after A Feast for Crows came out in 2005.

It is indeed a long wait, but fans can read some excerpts from The Winds of Winter book that George has published on his website and probably get some spoilers for the last two seasons of Game of Thrones. The latest chapter of The Winds of Winter published on the site is that of Arianne Martell’s point of view. Arianne is the only daughter of Doran Martell, although she’s been cut off the TV series.

As compiled by Winteriscoming.net, there are several point-of-view characters that are set to be featured in The Winds of Winter. These are based on previous excerpts that George posted on his website or the ones he read aloud at cons. A sample featuring Theon Greyjoy picks up where A Dance with Dragons left off, which is when he jumped off Winterfell and went into Stannis’ camp.

Fans will also see stories unfold in The Winds of Winter in the eyes of Arya Stark as Mercy, Sansa Stark as Alayne, Aeron Greyjoy as The Forsaken, Victarion Greyjoy, Tyrion Lannister, Barristan Selmy, Asha Greyjoy, Aero Hotah, Cersei Lannister, Melisandre, Bran Stark, Davos Seaworth and Jon Connington. So of course, those who should not be left out in The Winds of Winter include Jaime Lannister, Brienne of Tarth, Samwell Tarley and Jon Snow.

Five Game of Thrones new shows are prequels

Meanwhile, as the news emerged that HBO has been planning to have spin-offs of the hit series Game of Thrones, Martin clarified that he is actually working on all five ideas. Previous reports indicated there were four writers brought in to work on different GoT spin-off plans and that Martin is working on two of them.

Martin said that he is working with all of the writers and that a fifth plan also came out. Also, rather than a sequel to the Game of Thrones, all of the plans are prequels, which he prefers to call successor shows. The setting would also not be all in Westeros but rather in the world beyond, the ones he created in A Song of Ice and Fire. The projects in development will be written by Max Borenstein, Jane Goldman, Brian Helgeland, and Carly Wray. The fifth writer is not named, only that he loves Westeros a lot.

These are surely keeping George R.R. Martin from finishing The Winds of Winter as soon as possible.

[Featured image by Charles Sykes/AP Images]

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