When will The Winds of Winter, the next book in George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones series, be finished? To this question, many will answer "never." Winds of Winter is 13 years behind schedule, and the next one hasn't even started. George R.R. Martin is struggling to make progress, his attention and time occupied by various projects. And if you were expecting good news, you're out of luck.
George R.R. Martin, disappointed with the adaptation of House of the Dragon
Among the side projects that occupy George R.R. Martin's time, we think of House of the Dragon, the prequel to the HBO series Game of Thrones, for which the author brings his expertise and vision. And shortly after the end of Season 2, Martin took to his blog to air his grievances with the show, especially the changes made to crucial moments that he believes will create a snowball effect. One of these significant changes is the removal of a character from the famous assassination of Prince Jaehaerys. Martin explained that he protested to Ryan Condal, the show's director, about these changes, but that he eventually relented.
"When Ryan Condal first talked to me about what he was planning to do, a long time ago (in 2022, perhaps), I opposed the idea, for all these reasons," he recalled. "I didn't argue long, or with much energy, though. The change weakened the sequence, in my opinion, but only a little. And Ryan had what seemed like practical reasons for it; they didn't want to deal with casting another child, especially a two-year-old toddler. Children that young would inevitably slow down production, and there would be budgetary implications.Budget was already an issue on House of the Dragon, so it made sense to save money wherever we could. Also, Ryan assured me that we weren't losing Prince Maelor, just pushing him back. Queen Helaena might still give birth to him in Season 3, probably after becoming pregnant at the end of Season 2. This made sense to me, so I withdrew my objections and agreed to the change." src="https://static.hitek.fr/img/up_s/2154124424/69bca_capturedcran20250417112658.webp">
Condal recently broke his silence after being accused by George R.R. Martin, whose novels he is responsible for adapting. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, he assures that none of the changes, including the removal of Maelor, were made lightly: "There's nothing we do on the show without talking about it and thinking deeply about it for months, if not years. I'll just say that the creative decisions we make on the show all go through me, every single one, and this is the show I want to make and I believe, as a fan of 'Fire & Blood' and a deep reader of that material, that this is the adaptation we should make to serve not only 'Fire & Blood', but a massive television audience." George R.R. Marin has other things to do than finish The Winds of Winter. But he admits, George R.R. Martin is exhausted by the constant progress checks on A Game of Thrones and especially The Winds of Winter. In a recent interview with Time, Martin was asked about comments made when the author was posing supposedly resurrected "dire wolves" from Colossal Biosciences. "We had real dire wolves before The Winds of Winter, in particular, scathing comments that play with his mind.
"It's the curse of my life," the author explains. "There's no doubt that Winds of Winter is 13 years late. I'm still working on it. I have periods where I make progress, then other things divert my attention, and suddenly I have a deadline for one of the HBO shows, I have other things to do."
As you can see, George R.R. Martin has other priorities. His television projects seem to interest him more than finishing The Winds of Winter, and especially A Song of Ice and Fire. Now in his 77th year, George R.R. Martin is no longer young. It's even possible that A Song of Ice and Fire will never be finished, a sad reality that even the most optimistic fans probably don't want to think about. Unfortunately, Winds of Winter is far from finished, and George R.R. Martin must then move on to A Dream of Spring. A task that seems insurmountable for the American author, who can be seen absolutely everywhere except at his writing table.
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