George R.R. Martin, author of the Game of Thrones novels, has a major new plot twist planned for The Winds of Winter. Unfortunately, it won’t be possible to reproduce on HBO’s adaptation, since one of the major players are dead.
Last year, Martin told Entertainment Weekly that he’s come up with a "great twist" for The Winds of Winter that will “drive readers crazy.”
"It's easy to do things that are shocking or unexpected, but they have to grow out of characters. They have to grow out of situations. Otherwise, it's just being shocking for being shocking. But this is something that seems very organic and natural, and I could see how it would happen. And with the various three, or four characters involved... it all makes sense. But it's nothing I've ever thought of before,” Martin said.
At the time of the interview, Martin still wasn’t sure whether or not he’d deploy the new plot direction.
Now, in a new interview with IGN, Martin confirms that he’ll move forward with the unexpected storyline.
Whatever the new twist turns out to be, it’s no longer possible on HBO’s Game of Thrones, since one of the essential characters is dead.
“It’s fairly obviously because it’s something that involves a couple characters, one of whom is dead in the show, but not dead in the books, so the show can’t do this unfortunately, because they 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 in the books,” Martin said.
This new plot direction for The Winds of Winter could involve any one of the following characters: Myrcella Baratheon, Mance Rayder, Barristan Selmy, Jeyne Westerling, Jojen Reed, Pyp, Grenn, Stannis Baratheon, Shireen Baratheon, or Hizdahr Zo Loraq. All of them are dead on Game of Thrones, but still alive in the A Song of Ice and Fire novels.
Unfortunately, we won’t know exactly which character is tangled up in GRRM’s new twist until The Winds of Winter finally arrives.
“Ideally I would have liked to have finished all seven books and had the story complete, but the show moves at a faster pace than I do. That’s partly because I’m a slow writer and I’ve always been a slow writer. And also I’ve had a lot of distractions over the years,” Martin said. “All I can do is continue to write it.”
