Warning: Contains Spoilers
As many people mourn, or celebrate, the end of Game of Thrones, the guy who came up with it all – George R.R. Martin – has said he’s still got a way to go with the books.
And while many people lambast David Benioff and D.B Weiss for their version of the ending of Game of Thrones, Martin has spoken about the final culmination of the show, and how it’ll differ from the books that are yet to be written.
Martin posted a heartfelt goodbye to the TV series, but added a look ahead at what he’s got in store not only for the books, but also for the ‘successor shows’ and the number of other projects he’s working on.
Posting in his Not a Blog blog, Martin wrote:
It is hard to believe it is over, if truth be told. The years have gone past in the blink of an eye. Can it really have been more than a decade since my manager Vince Gerardis set up a meeting at the Palm in LA, and I sat down for the first time with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss for a lunch that lasted well past dinner? I asked them if they knew who Jon Snow’s mother was. Fortunately, they did.
It has been a wild ride, to say the least.
Martin went on to thank everyone involved in the show, and spoke about how we’ll be seeing them all again in one form or another – including himself, as he’s working on five shows with HBO, two with Hulu and one with the History Channel.
But what about Game of Thrones? Is he going to keep the books similar to the ending of the TV show, or has Georgie boy been playing the long game – waiting for Weiss and Benioff to end the show, see if their ideas worked, let them make the mistakes, and write his own ending accordingly?
As he says:
How will it all end? I hear people asking. The same ending as the show? Different?
Well… yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes. And no. And yes.
I am working in a very different medium than David and Dan, never forget. They had six hours for this final season. I expect these last two books of mine will fill 3000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them.
Martin also promised to tie up the endings of various characters who died onscreen but ‘still live in the books’, as well as those who didn’t even make it to the show, such as Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Victarion Greyjoy and Aegon VI.
The writer also added there’ll be ‘unicorns… of a sort…’ So, y’know, we’re definitely going to need a series about them.
Martin added:
Book or show, which will be the “real” ending? It’s a silly question. How many children did Scarlett O’Hara have?
How about this? I’ll write it. You read it. Then everyone can make up their own mind, and argue about it on the internet.
Looking forward to it.
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Charlie Cocksedge is a journalist and sub-editor at UNILAD. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an MA in Creative Writing, where he learnt how to write in the third person, before getting his NCTJ. His work has also appeared in such places as The Guardian, PN Review and the bin.