‘Winds Of Winter’ Release Date: What We Know So Far

It is most likely to be released before the premiere of Game of Thrones Season 6

It is believed that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will wait for the Winds of Winter release before airing the show’s sixth season. This is to reportedly pay tribute to George R.R. Martin whose work set the path for one of the world’s well-loved shows. Speculations were further intensified when HBO confirmed that it would delay the airing of Game of Thrones Season 6. While the announced reason is to give way first for the airing of Martin Scorsese’s Vinyl, fans think that the network is really waiting for GRRM’s highly-anticipated novel.

The fallen heroes of Westeros will get a bittersweet ending

While there’s one book left after Winds of Winter in GRRM’s “A Song of Ice and Fire” series, a happy ending might still take place after all the bloodshed in Westeros. In a previous discussion according to Vulture, the 67-year-old author talked about how he’d want the books to end.

“People ask me how Game of Thrones is gonna end, and I’m not gonna tell them. But I always say to expect something bittersweet in the end. I think you need to have some hope. We all yearn for happy endings in a sense. Myself, I’m attracted to the bittersweet ending.”

He also added that J.R.R. Tolkien’s Return of the King would inspire the Game of Thrones ending.

The book might already be in the publishing house

GRRM once told Entertainment Weekly that he’s doing his best to finish Winds of Winter.

“I wish it was out now. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I canceled two convention appearances, I’m turning down a lot more interviews-anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done.”

The book might be in the publishing house when GRRM wrote on his blog that while he’s away, his “army of minions” will be “toiling in the paper mines.”

Alejo Cuervo, editor of the Spanish publication Ediciones Gigamesh, also told The Week that the Winds of Winter release date was already “planned for next year.” He likewise quipped that the release date won’t be delayed “unless a meteor should fall.”

There will be a massive twist that will drive readers crazy

Huffington Post reports that GRRM will incorporate a shocking twist in the book although he may still have reservations about it.

“I’m still weighing whether to go that direction or not. It’s a great twist. It’s easy to do things that are shocking or unexpected, but they have to grow out of characters. They have to grow out of situations. Otherwise, it’s just being shocking for being shocking.”

For those wondering if it’s about Jon Snow’s death, George previously reminded fans that they must “know better than to take anything as gospel.” If there’s one character that is surely alive in the upcoming book, it’s Stannis Baratheon.

The series will still have a life of its own

Even if Game of Thrones will reportedly take cues from GRRM’s upcoming novel, the plot will still be different. As George once put it, the changes are inevitable because the books are 1,500 pages each, and if every scene will be filmed, “we would still be in the first season.” Nonetheless, he also wrote about his desire for the show to not deviate so much from his storyline.

“And over here I am trying to write the best novels that I can. And yes, more and more, they differ. Two roads diverging in the dark of the woods, I suppose… but all of us are still intending that at the end we will arrive at the same place.”

Fans have been waiting for Winds of Winter since 2011.

(Photo by Gustavo Caballero/Getty Images for Miller Lite)