This past week marks five years since HBO’s Game of Thrones TV show ended.
For the final couple of seasons, the showrunners were forced to rely on A Song of Ice and Fire author George RR Martin’s planned plot points for his final two novels in the series that he is yet to write: The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring.
In fact, the last time he published a novel in the fantasy series was in 2011, the year Game of Thrones began.
As fans continue to lose patience, the 75-year-old has spoken out on The Winds of Winter in his latest blog post that addresses the upcoming spin-off TV show The Hedge Knight, based on the first of Martin’s Dunk and Egg novellas.
Set 90 years before A Song of Ice and Fire, these follow the adventures of Sir Duncan the Tall (Dunk), the future Lord Commander of the Kingsguard and Egg, the future King Aegon V Targaryen.
The writer shared on his blog how he’s planning on visiting the Belfast set of The Hedge Knight in July.
Martin wrote: “The show will make its debut next year… and if it does well, THE SWORN SWORD and THE MYSTERY KNIGHT will follow.” These are the other two published Dunk and Egg short stories, but he has more in the works.
He added: “By which time I hope to have finished some more Dunk & Egg stories (yes, after I finish THE WINDS OF WINTER).”
It’s not exactly a release time frame, but at least fans can breathe a sigh of relief that other writing projects won’t sidetrack Martin until he’s finished The Winds of Winter.
After which, he plans to write some more Dunk and Egg before tackling the final novel in A Song of Ice and Fire, A Dream of Spring.
Given the 75-year-old hopes to have Winds and some more shorts written by the time season 3 of The Hedge Knight comes out suggests he plans to be done with both the upcoming Game of Thrones novel and novellas by the end of the decade.
