George R.R. Martin Admits That There's No Plan If He Dies…

The saga of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones universe will die with its author, according to Martin himself in a recent interview. It has been nearly 15 years since the last full-length novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Dance With Dragons, was first published, and if Martin doesn't survive long enough to finish The Winds of Winter, it will likely spell the end of Game of Thrones' epic tale.

Martin has been writing since his childhood, when he would sell scary stories to friends for a dime. He won his first accredited award, The Alley Award for Fan Fiction, before turning 18 at Academy Con for his work Powerman vs. The Blue Barrier, and he followed it up with countless other honors. But for most fans, his name will forever be tied to A Game of Thrones, the first full novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire fantasy franchise, which also lent its name to the hit HBO show that dominated TV ratings from 2011 to 2019 and has spurned multiple spin-offs, video games, board games, and more.

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By Renan Fontes

Game of Thrones' Original Tale Will Likely Be Left Unfinished

Now 77 years old, Martin seems pained to admit that his epic story will likely never meet its conclusion. Speaking earlier in January with The Hollywood Reporter, he was asked if he had ever considered just giving up on finishing The Winds of Winter, which he started writing in 2010 and remains incomplete to this day. “I would hate that,” he responded. “It would feel like a total failure to me. I want to finish.” He stated during that interview that he's completed more than 1,100 pages of the manuscript, which already puts its length slightly past the longest published book in the series, A Dance With Dragons, which measures at 1,016 to 1,040 pages depending on the printed version.

Even if the fate of The Winds of Winter turns out in fans' favor, there's still one book left, A Dream of Spring, to wrap up the mainline series. While HBO owns the rights to the television franchise, the source material remains Martin's personal intellectual property, and he's not planning on handing it over to someone else in the event of his death. "If that happens, my work won’t be finished," he remarked. "It’ll be like The Mystery of Edwin Drood," Charles Dickens' famous final novel, which was published in an incomplete form during the year of his death in 1880.

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That comment makes it sound as though fans may get at least one more full-length Game of Thrones book out of Martin, even if he has to leave it unfinished. Martin didn't plan on living to 77, but he also isn't planning on clocking out of this life just yet. "My lower back hurts sometimes," he said during the interview. "I don’t like to stand around. But I feel OK. Maybe you should make that your headline: 'George R.R. Martin Is Not Dying.'"

While the novel series remains five-sevenths unpublished, fans can at least draw some conclusions based on the HBO show, on which Martin has worked as co-executive producer and scripted four episodes. A lot of fans were disappointed with the final few seasons, especially after the show passed its source material, and Martin's plans are quite a bit darker than the ending HBO provided. He said his plans include darker endings for fan-favorite characters like Tyron Lannister, and possibly Sansa Stark. "I don’t see a happy ending for Tyrion," he explained. "His whole arc has been tragic from the first."

With his recent comments, it seems television will be the primary medium to carry on Martin's legacy instead, as two different spin-offs have already hit the airwaves and at least five more have been reported in various stages of development. Martin has admitted to liking at least one Game of Thrones spin-off, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which premiered on January 18 on HBO and serves as an adaptation of his Tales of Dunk and Egg novellas. But for bibliophiles, the eventual end of Martin seems it will serve as the end of A Song of Ice and Fire.

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