Because the night Internet is dark and full of spoilers, let me begin by saying the following article contains no spoilers for Game of Thrones season 8.
Instead, what we do have for you is one or two interesting quotes from George R.R. Martin himself, the creative mastermind responsible for A Song of Ice and Fire. Not unlike Robert Kirkman’s contribution to The Walking Dead on AMC, Martin has been actively involved in the development of Thrones, even as HBO’s saga deviated from his source material.
There are still another two books on the way – namely The Winders of Winter and A Dream of Spring – but with season 8 now officially underway, Martin has hinted at the imminent finale of HBO’s Thrones series. And it seems that he, at the very least, has a general idea of how the show will end.
Via Rolling Stone, here’s what the author had to share when asked if he knew the finer details of season 8’s final episode:
Well, to a degree. I mean, I think … the major points of the ending will be things that I told them, you know, five or six years ago. But there may also be changes, and there’ll be a lot added.
You’ll no doubt remember that Martin met with both David Benioff and D.B. Weiss in and around season 5, when the former outlined the direction in which his novel series was headed. Fast forward to now, and it turns out George R.R. Martin is yet to see any footage beyond season 8×02, so he’s in the same boat as we are.
I haven’t … I mean I know some of what’s going on there, but I haven’t actually seen any footage. So I’ll be seeing that for the first time with everybody else.
Game of Thrones season 8 returns to our screens this Sunday with the super-sized [REDACTED]. Full disclosure: HBO is yet to disclose the official title, but we have a sneaking suspicion that it’ll wind up being called The Battle of Winterfell.