George R.R. Martin’s 1993 Boast Sparks Backlash Over The Winds of Winter Priorities
At New York Comic Con, George R.R. Martin finally tackled the uproar over The Winds of Winter’s long delay — acknowledging the backlash while defending how he splits his focus between past hits and the long‑awaited novel.
George R.R. Martin finally addressed the elephant that follows him into every convention hall: The Winds of Winter is still not done, and yes, he hears you. At New York Comic Con, he talked about the delay, the constant fan backlash, and why his older stuff keeps getting dusted off for TV while the book everyone is waiting on keeps slipping down the to-do list.
What Martin said at NYCC
Every time that happens, and I announce it on my website, half the internet goes crazy. 'Why the f--- is George R.R. Martin writing this other thing when he should be writing Winds of Winter? What is he doing?' And I want to say, 'I did it in 1993, guys. Come on! It was lying in my drawer, and they wanted it, so I sold it to them!'
His point is pretty simple: the Game of Thrones boom made people start hunting through his back catalog, so projects he wrote decades ago are suddenly hot again. When a studio calls about an old manuscript, he sells it. That cycle has pulled a lot of attention away from Winds, even if it started as a side effect of success rather than an intentional stall.
The 1993 thing, Wild Cards, and the long road to TV
When he mentions something he wrote in 1993, the obvious candidate is 'Wild Cards XIII: Card Sharks' (published in 1993). That tracks with the adaptation saga we have watched play out: there was a plan in 2016 to take Wild Cards to screen, but Martin was under an exclusive deal with HBO at the time, so he was not directly involved. Fast forward to 2023: he said Peacock passed on Wild Cards, and the team is still shopping it around. Translation: the phone keeps ringing about his older work, and he keeps saying yes.
Dunk & Egg is moving; Martin is busy on the TV side
Meanwhile, HBO is making 'A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms,' based on 1998's 'The Hedge Knight' from the Tales of Dunk and Egg. Martin is an executive producer and a co-creator on that series, which means more time spent in meetings and writers rooms instead of, you know, finishing Chapter Whatever of Winds.
So where is The Winds of Winter in all this?
Yes, I do love Winds of Winter. I'm still interested in it, I'm still working on it, but honestly, I love these other things, too.
It has been 14 years since 'A Dance with Dragons' (2011), and Winds has been competing with everything from legacy projects to newer books like 'Fire & Blood.' The demand for Winds hasn't made him stop selling rights to the older material; if anything, the success of the universe keeps generating new deals that tug at his schedule. Not shocking, but if you're waiting on the novel, it is exactly the kind of slow-burn update you didn't want.
A Song of Ice and Fire timeline
- A Game of Thrones — 1996
- A Clash of Kings — 1998
- A Storm of Swords — 2000
- A Feast for Crows — 2005
- A Dance with Dragons — 2011
- The Winds of Winter — TBA
- A Dream of Spring — TBA
Bottom line: Martin knows the internet is yelling, he says he's still writing, and he keeps taking on other work that he also loves. That combination is why Winds keeps getting nudged aside, even as the shelf next to it fills up with new TV projects based on things he wrote ages ago.