‘Game of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin Says Book Ending Will Be Different From Show

‘Game of Thrones’ Author George R.R. Martin Says Book Ending Will Be Different From Show
Kit Harington as Jon Snow (L) and Emilia Clarke as Daenerys Targaryen in a scene from "Game of Thrones." (HBO via AP)

Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin has said that the ending in the book series will be different from the one in the show. Article is spoiler-free.

The television show’s finale aired on May 19.

Some fans were pleased with the ending while others reacted with scorn. The final season of the series proved controversial, with over one million people signing a petition asking for it to be re-done.

Martin said in a post on his blog on May 20 that he couldn’t believe that so many years have gone by since he first met with David Benioff and D.B. Weiss to discuss making the show.

NTD Photo
George R. R. Martin attends the LA Special Screening of Fox Searchlight Pictures’ “Tolkien” at Regency Village Theatre in Westwood, Calif. on May 8, 2019. (Photo by Amy Sussman/Getty Images)

“It is hard to believe it is over, if truth be told. The years have gone past in the blink of an eye,” Martin wrote. “Let me say this much—last night was an ending, but it was also a beginning. … I suspect that you have not seen the last of Westeros on your television sets either, but I guess that all depends on how some of these successor shows turn out.”

NTD Photo
(L-R) Maisie Williams, Isaac Hempstead Wright, and Sophie Turner in a scene from the final episode of “Game of Thrones,” that aired on May 19, 2019. (HBO via AP)
Emilia Clarke Game of Thrones
Emilia Clarke in a scene from the final episode of “Game of Thrones,” that aired on May 19, 2019. (HBO via AP)

Martin then seemed to say that the ending in the books would retain some of the same points as the one in the show but also present some different aspects while promising fans that his long-delayed final two installments in the book series will be finished.

“I’m writing. Winter is coming, I told you, long ago… and so it is. THE WINDS OF WINTER is very late, I know, I know, but it will be done. I won’t say when, I’ve tried that before, only to burn you all and jinx myself… but I will finish it, and then will come A DREAM OF SPRING,” he wrote.

“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.”

Martin said that Benioff and Weiss had to figure out an ending that fit on screen while he would be working in a different medium.

Peter Dinklage Game of Thrones
Peter Dinklage in a scene from the final episode of “Game of Thrones” that aired on May 19, 2019. (HBO via AP)
a scene from "Game of Thrones"
Kristofer Hivju, Kit Harington, and Emilia Clarke in a scene from “Game of Thrones.” (Helen Sloan/HBO via AP)

“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 3,000 manuscript pages between them before I’m done… and if more pages and chapters and scenes are needed, I’ll add them,” he wrote.

“And of course the butterfly effect will be at work as well; those of you who follow this Not A Blog will know that I’ve been talking about that since season one. There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books… so if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet. And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort…”

Looking forward to the arguments that would arise over the “real ending” of the series, Martin said it was “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,” he concluded.

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