'Game of Thrones' actor says George RR Martin has completed the last 2 books but is holding out till the HBO series ends
The television show 'Game of Thrones' is based on the book series 'A Song of Ice and Fire' by George R. R. Martin and fans of the show know by now the series has veered away from the books. The last two books in the series have, in fact, not been published and many wondered if the author would complete it anytime soon.
Looks like all that worry was unnecessary as actor Ian McElhinney who played the role of Barristan Selmy in 'Game of Thrones' revealed that Martin has completed the books titled 'The Winds of Winter' and 'A Dream of Spring.' McElhinney revealed this during a panel in April at Epic Comic Con in St Petersburg, Russia.
The only reason why Martin hasn't published the books is because of a deal that he struck with the creators, D.B. Weiss and David Benioff, according to the actor. He said, "I don't know if you know more than me about this, but what I've been told is that George has already written books six and seven."
McElhinney also added, "And as far as he's concerned, there only are seven books. But he struck an agreement with David [Benioff] and Dan [Weiss], the showrunners of the series, that he would not publish the final two books until the series has completed. So all goes well, in another month or two, we might get books six and seven, and I'm intrigued to know how Barristan, for instance, ends up going through those final two books."
Martin while speaking earlier to Rolling Stone addressed what it felt like when the TV show deviated from the books and he said, "Some of the deviation, of course, is because I’ve been so slow with these books. I really should’ve finished this thing four years ago — and if I had, maybe it would be telling a different story here. It’s two variations of the same story, or a similar story, and you get that whenever anything is adapted. The analogy I’ve often used is, to ask how many children did Scarlett O’Hara have? Do you know the answer to that?"