The highly-anticipated sixth installment of "A Song of Ice and Fire" series may already have its release date window. With this, the anticipation of the new book's release is rekindled once again.
In his blog, the "Game of Thrones" author responded to a fan that "The Winds of Winter" should be released within this year. He added a disclaimer though as he already thought of that before.
Martin also explained that despite not being done, he has made some progress; however, the degree of completion he has accomplished is not as much as he initially hoped, but nevertheless, he still hopes that the book will be out before 2017 ends.
The updates for the book's release date are sparse, with the last official one dating back in January last year. During that time, he announced that "Winds of Winter" will not be finished in time before "Game of Thrones" Season 6 is released.
Martin wrote during that time that he did not write as fast as he had hoped since he was busy traveling and doing other projects. He even went so far as to say that his age had an impact as well, thus leading him to believe that he will not be done with the book before Halloween last year.
In other news, it seems that the "Game of Thrones" Season 7 is in its final month of production in Iceland and Belfast before it gets taken to editing. However, with this late in production, it is surprising that official casting announcements were given.
According to the Hamilton Hodell Talent Management, Australian actor Brendan Cowell is ccast to play a character for the upcoming new season. The character is Harrag the Ironborn, who is seen in "A Dance with Dragons." It is unsure however if the showrunners will give him a more important role in the series.
Here is a teaser for "Game of Thrones" Season 7: