HBO’s adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s “A Song of Ice And Fire” saga, Game Of Thrones, began to deviate pretty significantly from its source material around the third or fourth season, and at the point we’re at now, some plot strands and character arcs are almost unrecognizable to readers of the novels.
So far, when it came to the major reveals and events (the Red Wedding, for example) things were usually able to course-correct enough that the end results were roughly the same – but what happens when you don’t have the characters there to work with?
While speaking to IGN, Martin revealed that he’s planning a major twist for one of the final two books in the saga which we won’t see on the show – because they’ve killed off one of the players involved.
It is something that involves a couple of characters, one of whom is dead on the show, but not dead in the books. So the show can’t do it, because they have killed a character I have not killed. But 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 on the books.”
He might be exaggerating somewhat – at least in terms of major characters – but there are certainly a few poor souls that could be involved in this twist that are currently pushing up daisies on the show: Jojen Reed, Stannis Baratheon, Barristan Selmy and the Dothraki Bloodrider known as Rakharo, who Martin has previously confirmed will still play a significant role in the books.
Game Of Thrones returns on April 24th to HBO. Will you be tuning in to see what surprises the network has in store for us? Let us know below!
