The release of George R.R. Martin's "The Winds of Winter" has been evidently delayed and the writing process, as confirmed by the writer himself, has been slower than usual. However, Martin promised fans that he's still got a lot of surprise on his sleeves and more.
HBO's "Game of Thrones" series was a big winner at Emmy Awards 2016, winning in three categories, including Outstanding Drama Series. The show now has a total of 38 awards, breaking the record previously held by "Frasier," which had 37 awards under its belt.
To celebrate the show's victory, Martin took to his official Livejournal account to congratulate the cast and crew, where he wrote, "Congrats to all, and especially to Dan and Dave, who have put together a truly amazing team and made some television history in the process."
As for the show's future, everything is already set in stone. HBO confirmed that "Game of Thrones" will end with Season 8 and that the last two remaining seasons will have fewer episodes compared to previous ones.
Co-showrunner D.B. Weiss promised that the last two seasons will be "bigger and it will be better, but it will also be worse but mostly better."
However, Martin teased that there might be more in store for the franchise as far as the books are concerned.
"I do have thousands of pages of fake history of everything that led up to 'Game of Thrones,' so there's a lot of material there and I'm writing more," Martin told Deadline.
He added, to address concerns about "The Winds of Winter," "At the moment we still have this show to finish and I still have two books to finish so that's all speculation."
Starting season 6, "Game of Thrones" has been operating on its own and outside the "A Song of Ice and Fire" book series. With Martin's books still in the works, there's really quite no telling what might happen in the story in the show.
Although Martin has been quiet about the possible release date for "The Winds of Winter," one fan speculated that the book might be near publishing, after an ISBN allegedly assigned for the book was discovered.