We’ve already reached the point where Game of Thrones is ahead of George RR Martin’s books – but showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have admitted they have no idea how the source material will actually end.
As the hit fantasy show prepares to return for its final season on Sunday, Benioff and Weiss say that Martin has left them in the dark about how he wants to end his own books.
“[The concern] used to be that the books would spoil the show for people — and luckily it did not, for the most part,” Benioff told Entertainment Weekly. “Now that the show is ahead of the books, it seems the show could ruin the books for people.
“So one thing we’ve talked to George about is that we’re not going to tell people what the differences are, so when those books come out people can experience them fresh.”
Benioff added: “And George discovers a lot of stuff while he’s writing. I don’t think that final book is written in stone yet — it’s not written on paper yet.
“As George says, he’s a gardener and he’s waiting to see how those seeds blossom.”
Weiss explained: “It’s kind of nice for him [George RR Martin] because — obviously through necessity we’ve pulled out ahead — the show has become so different that people will have no way knowing from watching what will or won’t appear in the books.”
This comes after Martin himself admitted that he has no desire for the show to end.
Martin, who wrote the book series A Song Of Ice And Fire, says he will be “hanging around Westeros” for a long time after the final episode airs.
“I don’t think it should be the final season. But here we are,” he admitted at last week’s New York premiere. “It seems to me we just started last week. Has it been longer than that? The time has passed by in a blur. But it’s exciting.”
Game Of Thrones returns for a final run of six episodes on Sunday.