'Winds of Winter' author says showrunners 'bloodier'; teases 'twist' involving dead character from TV series

“Winds of Winter” author George R.R. Martin teased that he has decided to add a new “twist” to the book. He said that the twist involved a character who was dead in the “Game of Thrones” TV series, but alive in “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series.

In an interview with IGN, Martin pointed out that ideally he would like to have completed all seven books in the series and have the complete story ready. However, the TV series has already caught up to the books and is poised to overtake them in the next season.

The author explained that the TV series has moved at a faster pace than him and admitted that he has always been a slow writer. He also said that he has had many distractions over the past few years, chief among them is being involved with the TV series as a writer for many of the episodes and as a co-executive producer.

Martin had been contemplating a new twist in “Winds of Winter” for some time now. In the interview he revealed that he has finally decided to include that twist. The author did not elaborate on the twist, but said that it involved a couple of characters and one of them is dead in the “Game of Thrones” TV series, but alive in the books.

“That doesn’t narrow it down much because at this point there are like 15 characters who are dead on the show who are still alive in the books,” Martin said. The author also joked that while he gets a lot attention for the amount of deaths in the books, showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are “bloodier” than him, as they don’t hesitate to kill of characters who are still alive in the books.

Martin has still not committed to a release date for “Winds of Winter.” Fans of the franchise were hoping for the book to be released before “Game of Thrones” Season” 6, but that will not happen.