- Author George R.R. Martin gave HBO's "Game of Thrones" showrunners the gist of his planned ending years ago — but he doesn't know for certain if the season eight finale will match his plan.
- In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly's James Hibberd, Martin says he hasn't read the final season's scripts nor has he been to set.
- "There may be important discrepancies," Martin said when speaking of the potential differences between his book series' ending and the show's finale.
The conclusion of HBO's "Game of Thrones" will mark an unprecedented moment in pop culture history: The television adaptation of an unfinished book series surpassing the original material.
And even the author of the original fantasy novels series, "A Song of Ice and Fire," says he doesn't know for certain how "Game of Thrones" will end.
"I haven't read the [final-season] scripts and haven't been able to visit the set because I've been working on ['The Winds of Winter']," Martin told Entertainment Weekly.
"I know some of the things," Martin said. "But there's a lot of minor-character [arcs] they'll be coming up with on their own. And, of course, they passed me several years ago. There may be important discrepancies."
Between the third and fourth seasons of "Game of Thrones," the show's co-creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss realized they were going to overtake Martin's published novels. He only has five of the planned-seven books published. The sixth book, "The Winds of Winter," has been in progress for more than eight years.
So Benioff and Weiss had a lengthy meeting with Martin ahead of the fourth season. In this meeting, Martin told the two showrunners the main beats for his planned ending of the book series.
Because Martin hadn't mapped out every detail of each character's journey, the ways "Game of Thrones" would work towards the ending was bound to differ.
Martin began stepping back from the show's production around the fifth season. He wanted to focus on writing "The Winds of Winter," so he stopped the four-season long tradition of writing one episode per installment of the show.
As was also reported by EW, Benioff and Weiss offered to have Martin appear on the eighth season with a cameo, but the author declined. Again, he cited the need to focus his time on "The Winds of Winter."
Now, Martin will potentially be just as surprised as fans when the final six episodes unfold this spring.
Benioff and Weiss told EW they don't plan on revealing to the public which of the final season storylines were pulled from that 2013 meeting with Martin. We'll have to wait until Martin writes and publishes the final two books in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" to know for certain how the show and books differed in the end.
"Game of Thrones" premieres on April 14.
- Read more:
- Watch the first full trailer for 'Game of Thrones' season 8 here
- Every detail you might have missed in the new 'Game of Thrones' season 8 trailer
- Everything we know about the final season of 'Game of Thrones'
- George R.R. Martin declined a chance to appear on 'Game of Thrones' season 8, and it's not the first time his cameos have fallen through