George R.R. Martin has a new update on The Winds of Winter, but it doesn’t sound like the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire series is coming anytime soon.
“I have to finish the books. That’s the one thing I’m completely in control of,” Martin told Collider. “There’s no budget limitations. There’s no other executives on the studio side that I have to please, or other writers with different views. The books are what I’m going to make them. And, I think the one I’m writing is coming pretty well, but I wish it would come faster.”
The last installment in the series, A Dance With Dragons, was published back in 2011, and The Winds of Winter was expected to follow in 2016. Eight years later, there’s still no sign of it. The books served as the source material for Game of Thrones, which came to an end in 2019.
Martin has had a conflicted relationship with recent adaptations of his work, as alluded to in his comment to Collider. Last year, he blasted planned “toxic changes” in House of the Dragon season 3, the next installment in the adaptation of his book Fire & Blood, in a now-deleted blog post.
The next small-screen take on his work is A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, a new series based on Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas. Set a century before Game of Thrones, the show will follow unlikely duo Ser Duncan the Tall and his young squire Egg. “It’s as faithful as an adaptation as a reasonable man could hope for (and you all know how incredibly reasonable I am on that particular subject),” the author recently said on his blog.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is expected to arrive on HBO and Max in late 2025. In the meantime, check out our guide to other most exciting new TV shows to add to your watchlist this year.