George R.R. Martin discusses the differences between Game of Thrones and The Winds of Winter

By this time next week, we’ll all be standing around our office water coolers discussing the Game of Thrones season 7 premiere. With just a few days to go until Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen, and Cersei Lannister grace our screens again, A Song of Ice and Fire creator and Game of Thrones executive producer George R.R. Martin has taken to his Not A Blog, where he discussed how the still-unpublished sixth book in his series, The Winds of Winter, will differ from the show.

Martin began his post — titled “Binging” — by discussing a few shows fans could binge watch until July 16, when everything but Game of Thrones will be forgotten. He touted the new seasons of both Fargo and Better Call Saul, as well as Netflix’s The Last Kingdom and Amazon Prime’s Good Girls Revolt.

But the real fireworks started in the comments, when a fan asked if The Winds of Winter would deviate from the show. Martin’s response:

"WINDS will be different in some ways, but will parallel the show in others. At this point, there are probably a dozen characters who are dead on the show but alive in the books, so it would be impossible for the two to remain the same. (Also, of course, there are characters in the books who have never even existed on the show, like Victarion Greyjoy, Jon Connington, Penny, Arianne Martell… )"

This response is in keeping with how Martin usually discusses this topic — by saying that, generally speaking, the show is the show and the books are the books. It’s good to hear him talk about it this openly, though.

Next: Winter is Coming Previews: Our Game of Thrones season 7 preview

In the novels, characters like Stannis Baratheon, Barristan Selmy, Margaery Tyrell, Hodor and Ramsay Bolton  are still alive. It will be interesting to see which of those characters will follow their show counterparts into the grave when The Winds of Winter hits store shelves…at some point.