Look, there is no denying that the wait for The Winds of Winter has been far longer than anyone ever anticipated. While George R.R. Martin was never the fastest at publishing books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series, no one could have predicted we’d be waiting 15 years and counting between the release of the fifth and sixth books in the series. Yet here we are.
At this point, many fans have begun to give up hope that the next book will ever be released, while others have some pretty interesting theories about the actual plans for the book. This includes one crazy theory that seems to be gaining a lot of momentum among the Game of Thrones fandom, so much so that it continues to come up every time discussions about The Winds of Winter occur.
In fact, it was tossed out once again just this week via a newly posted Reddit thread designed to spark conversation about whether George R.R. Martin is going to release or finish any of his pending projects.
Fans are speculating that The Winds of Winter is finished and will be released posthumously
You read that statement correctly. It seems many fans are beginning to question whether George R.R. Martin has already finished The Winds of Winter and simply won’t allow the book to be released until after his death.
The running theory among fans is that Martin has completed the novel and is simply chosing not to release it until after his death for one of two reasons. Some fans seem to believe Martin will release The Winds of Winter posthumously so that he does not have to deal with the fan reaction to the book and any backlash they might have about the direction he takes the characters and stories in. This theory certainly makes sense given how fans reacted to the final season of Game of Thrones.
Fan backlash over the show’s ending was unlike anything we’ve seen before or have seen since. Nearly two million fans signed a petition urging HBO to remake the final season with “more competent writers.” That petition took off like wildfire and even caught the attention of the cast, many of whom spoke out to vent their own frustrations over the fans’ harsh reactions. Things got so bad that creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss walked away from the franchise and even canceled public appearances in the immediate wake of the show’s end, most notably dropping out of the sendoff panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2019.
Given how fans have behaved and treated him over the years, we certainly wouldn’t blame Martin if he had finished the book and didn’t want to see his hard work dragged through the mud. At this point, the sad reality is that no matter how incredible The Winds of Winter might be, there is no way the book will please everyone, and it's sure to be picked apart by those who claim to love the franchise most.
What does Martin truly have to gain from releasing the book? He certainly doesn’t need the money, and what incentive is there for him to release a book that will be met with criticism and judgment before anyone even opens it and turns to page 1?
Fans have mistreated Martin for years, turning him into the butt of jokes and questioning every choice he makes. They’ve created quite a toxic environment for Martin, and the excitement over The Winds of Winter has evolved into a sense of entitlement, with fans feeling they’re “owed” a proper ending for the books but one that will also make up for the shortcomings of the final season.
It’s for this reason that we could actually see there being merit to the fan theory. That’s not to say we’re fully sold on it, but we can certainly see why so many fans have bought into the theory over the years and continue to do so. Hopefully, we won’t find out whether there is any truth to this theory anytime soon, but we certainly anticipate that fans will continue to theorize about it whenever The Winds of Winter’s release comes up.
This isn’t a new theory. It’s one that has surfaced many times over the years and seems to only keep gaining more traction with each passing year.
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