Warning: There are major spoilers below for “Game of Thrones,” up to Season 7.
“Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin has been so busy with writing and touring that he hasn’t had the time to sit down and watch the show.
In an interview with Metro, the author revealed what he’s been up to lately, gave a non-update on “The Winds of Winter” (it’s still happening) and gave some insight into how the show will differ from future books. That includes some characters who died in the show that are still alive at this point in the books.
“The book series and TV adaptation go their separate ways,” Martin said. “On the screen characters are killed right and left. About twenty of them have died already, which are quite alive to me and will appear in a new book.”
Let speculation commence. However, some are off the table. Showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff revealed after a shocking Season 6 death that the two had discussed three shocking moments with Martin that are set to occur in the books.
The first was Stannis Baratheon sacrificing his daughter Shireen. The second was the true meaning behind Hodor’s name. The third occurs at the very end.
So sorry, Shireen is still dead. Hodor maybe too. That’s still unclear.
“People are going to be very surprised when they read the books after the show,” Benioff said. “They’re quite divergent in so many respects for the remainder of the show.”
Then Martin gave another explanation for why it’s taking so long for the sixth book in the “Song of Ice and Fire” series to hit store shelves.
“I did not start to write slower over the years,” he explained. “I was working on the first book for six year and four years on the second one. Fantasists who release their novels every year, do not offer books of large volume. These are not 1.5k pages like mine, but, for example, 500. In addition, I have not become younger. Age does not add enthusiasm.”