George R.R. Martin is an incredibly talented writer who has, for the most part, been very upfront and honest about when fans can expect his work, primarily with the progress of the sixth novel in the A Song of Fire and Ice series, titled The Winds of Winter. It has been a long time coming, and the writer made sure fans knew that he is still working on it, even if we've been waiting over ten years for the next novel.
On his website, Martin gave fans an update on a lot of his projects, talking about how quickly 2021 passed and how much work he got done in the year — and yes, he did update us on the status on The Winds of Winter, while also giving fans a look into his involvement in other series and properties. Martin is a busy man, and while many of us are anxious for the sixth novel to come out, he's clearly balancing a lot of things at once.
Martin started off his post by talking about how quickly the year had passed and lamenting those friends and celebrities we'd lost in 2021. He then went on to confirm that he is still working on The Winds of Winter. "Yes, of course I am still working on THE WINDS OF WINTER," he wrote. "I have stated that a hundred times in a hundred venues, having to restate it endlessly is just wearisome. I made a lot of progress on WINDS in 2020, and less in 2021… but “less” is not “none.”
Martin also got fans excited for the upcoming HBO series House of the Dragon, starring Matt Smith, Olivia Cooke, and more in the world of Game of Thrones, which is set to give us a look into the Targaryens. It will bring us the story of the Targaryen civil war and will take place about three hundred years prior to the events of Game of Thrones:
"So far, I am very excited. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON has wrapped in London and is now in post-production. What I have seen, I have loved. I am eager to see more. I am excited about the other successor shows as well, however. I am dying to tell you all about them, but I am not supposed to, so…"
There are also new shows coming to HBO and HBO Max that Martin teased! "We are developing live action shows for HBO, and animated shows for HBO Max," he wrote. " No, can’t tell you how many. But it is my hope that a number of these shows will get on the air. Not all, no, it is never all, but more than one. I certainly hope so. Some of the ideas we are working on are quite different in tone and approach than what has gone before, and that thrills me. The world of Westeros (and Essos, etc) is huge, and there is room in it for many types of stories, about a wide range of characters."
You can read more about what Martin had to say about the new shows here:
What can I tell you? Well, let’s see. Bruno Heller, the creator and showrunner of ROME, is writing his pilot script for the Corlys Velaryon series. That one started out as NINE VOYAGES, but now we’re calling it THE SEA SNAKE, since we wanted to avoid having two shows with numbers in the title. The other one TEN THOUSAND SHIPS, the Nymeria series. Amanda Segel, our showrunner, has delivered a couple drafts of that one, and we are forging ahead. The third of the live action shows is the Dunk & Egg series, helmed by Steve Conrad. My team and I have had some great sessions with Steve and his team, and we really hit it off. He’s determined to do a faithful adaptation of the stories, which is exactly what I want; these characters and stories are very precious to me. The first season will be an adaptation of the first novella, “The Hedge Knight.” Contrary to what you may have read on line, the show will not be called DUNK & EGG, which could be mistaken for a sitcom by viewers unfamiliar with the stories. We’re leaning toward A KNIGHT OF THE SEVEN KINGDOMS for the series title, though THE HEDGE KNIGHT has its partisans as well.