George RR Martin against the Iron Throne and mock up cover for The Winter of Winter
Takes Game of Thrones George RR Martin HBO House of the Dragon

There’s a reason The Winds of Winter isn’t happening and we need to stop ignoring it

It has everything to do with Game of Thrones

Daisy Phillipson
28th April 2026, 16:16
Add as preferred source on Google
Add as preferred source on Google

Last week, George RR Martin’s publisher debunked a rumour that The Winds of Winter was finished. It’s yet another blow to the fandom, but there’s one factor that’s hard to ignore when it comes to the book’s delay and it has everything to do with Game of Thrones. 

The rumour surfaced in a tweet that claimed the penultimate entry to Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire saga – which forms the basis of HBO’s Game of Thrones series – was finished and set to release soon. 

Even though fans wanted to believe it’s true, they knew it was fake news. And so it came as no surprise when the US publisher, Bantam Books, came out and told EW, “The online chatter you are seeing regarding a supposed leak is false.”

The jokes soon started rolling in. “Only George RR Martin would announce he is, in fact, not working on The Winds of Winter,” said one on Reddit, while another wrote, “Best comment I saw was something like ‘Martin speaks out to debunk allegations of productivity’.”

Is it sad? Yes, but it’s not surprising. The last published entry in A Song of Ice and Fire is A Dance with Dragons… which dropped in 2011. Since then there’s been 15 years of tortuous waiting, with plenty of false hope along the way. 

In more recent years, Martin has been vocal about his struggles to finish the saga, even telling Time that The Winds of Winter is “the curse of my life”. It’s one of the reasons frustration grows every time the fantasy author announces new projects. 

His TV universe is expanding, with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms dropping in January, House of the Dragon season three coming up and an Aegon’s Conquest movie in the works.

But while it’s easy to blame the delay on Martin’s ever-expanding list of projects, that explanation is a little too simple. 

George R.R. Martin, presenting award the Hugo Award Ceremony 2017
Credit: Sanna Pudas

The author doesn’t just have a novel to finish – he’s got to wrap up one of the most anticipated stories in modern fantasy. And that pressure has skyrocketed in the years since Game of Thrones came to an end. 

Much like the initial Ice and Fire novels, Game of Thrones’ early seasons had it all: critically acclaimed, huge ratings, and Martin’s rich world to draw from. But then the show moved past its source material, culminating in Season 8, aka the most divisive chapter of TV in recent history. 

Years of build-up led to an ending that, for many, simply didn’t land. The author hinted about this pressure in a 2017 blog post discussing his Dunk and Egg novellas. “I don’t want to repeat what happened with Game of Thrones itself, where the show gets ahead of the books,” he wrote.

He’s repeatedly said that the ending of his novels will not mirror the controversial ending created by the show, but maybe that’s one of the biggest causes of his writer’s block.

Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen in Game of Thrones
Credit: HBO

Imagine being responsible for not only finalising a story but making it better – with the whole world watching. It’s rare enough for an author to be working on a long-delayed final act, but rarer still for a version of it to already exist and to have been so widely criticised.

Other theories have surfaced that perhaps Martin is struggling to put pen to paper because the TV show finished exactly how he intended it to – and everyone hated it.

“Yes, the quality of the writing might deteriorate as things go on, due to not having the source material, but I firmly believe the show ends with exactly the same story points that would’ve ended up in the books,” wrote one Redditor. 

“And Martin has seen the reaction to them and now can’t be arsed to finish writing any of it. Especially since it might mean changing his plot to try and make it more palatable for people.”

Whatever the case, the real reason The Winds of Winter is taking so long might be something we don’t want to admit – because it means the problem isn’t just Martin, but the impossible expectations surrounding him.

For all the latest film and TV updates and hot takes, like our Facebook page.

Featured image credit: HBO/Tolga Akmen/Shutterstock/Bantam Spectra