George R. R. Martin has said that his final Game Of Thrones novels will “kill more people” than the television version did.
READ MORE: ‘A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms’ review: sweet and silly ‘Game Of Thrones’ prequel
Martin’s A Song Of Ice And Fire series of fantasy novels spawned the HBO series Game Of Thrones and its prequels House Of The Dragon and A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms, although the final two entries in the seven-book series remain unfinished.
The most recent book that Martin published in the series was A Dance With Dragons in 2011, with The Winds Of Winter set to be the sixth volume and A Dream Of Spring intended to bring the saga to its conclusion.
The delay in the publication of the last two books meant that the HBO telling of the saga had to largely invent the remainder of the story for its final seasons, based on Martin’s rough blueprint.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin has spoken about how the books will diverge from the HBO show when they are finally released.
“I was going to kill more people,” he said. “Not the ones they killed [in the show]. They made it more of a happy ending. I don’t see a happy ending for Tyrion. His whole arc has been tragic from the first. I was going to have Sansa die, but she’s been so appealing in the show, maybe I’ll let her live …”
Elsewhere in the interview, he opened up about the struggle of finishing The Winds Of Winter. “I have to finish the next book,” he said. “The actual writing [is getting] harder. I’m rewriting. I’m struggling. Maybe I’m overoptimistic about how quickly I can write these things. I’m trying to cut back on anything that I can to clear my decks and get this done.”
“I have to write more Dunk and Egg,” he added, referring to the prequel novellas. “There’s supposed to be another Fire and Blood book, too. I do think if I can just get some of these other things off my back, I could finish The Winds of Winter pretty soon. It’s been made clear to me that Winds is the priority, but … I don’t know. Sometimes I’m not in the mood for that.”
The first season of A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms is set to premiere on Sunday (January 18) on HBO, with UK viewers able to watch the following day on Sky and NOW TV. Based on the Tales Of Dunk And Egg novellas, it stars Peter Claffey as the hedge knight Dunk and Dexter Sol Ansell as his squire Egg.
In a three-star review of the show, NME wrote: “By the end of this first season though, the relationship between Dunk and Egg has developed into something genuinely sweet. You’ll find yourself rooting for Claffey’s klutzy knight as he tries to prove his virtue as well as his mettle. Considering that Dunk’s defining achievement in episode one is defecating athletically from behind a tree, that’s no mean feat.”
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