‘Game Of Thrones’ Creator George R.R. Martin Opens Up About Final Season Of Beloved Series

It’s been over 20 years since George R.R. Martin created the land of Westeros in his sprawling, epic novels that HBO’s Game of Thrones is based on. In that time, Martin has busied himself adding to the world of dragons and kingslayers, but looking ahead to the final season of GoT, Martin opened up about what he thinks about the series coming to an end.

As The Hollywood Reporter shared, Martin revealed that he’s not looking forward to saying goodbye to the television adaptation of his series, but he’s excited for the future of the franchise — and the many reported spinoffs that might follow GoT’s series finale.

“I don’t think it should be the final season. But here we are. It seems to me we just started last week. Has it been longer than that? The time has passed by in a blur. But it’s exciting. I know it’s an end, but it’s not much of an end for me.”

Martin added that he’s still deep in the throes of penning the books on which the series drew inspiration from. Though Martin is still working on the sixth novel in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, he was able to participate in GoT’s final season, which will likely stray from what the author had in mind for some of his characters.

“I can name 20 characters who are dead on the show but are alive in the books. Whether they will die in the books or not? Who knows,” the author shared.

Martin also added that he wishes he had more time — saying that he wished he was in his 30s instead of his 70s — because the details and characters keep developing in his mind, and he has ideas for the novels that could stretch for miles. Luckily enough for fans of the epic novels and of the HBO series, there are, according to Martin, at least five sequels in the works at this very moment.

The first in the line of hopeful projects will be a prequel which is said to start production in 2019. As Harper’s Bazaar revealed, so far very few details have been released, but the cast is coming together, as is the plotline. The prequel is said to take place thousands of years before the events that fans have been watching on Game of Thrones and will explore the history of Westeros leading up to where we see our heroes as they are now, readying for the final, epic battle for the throne.

Though Martin is excited about the upcoming project, and those that might follow, he’s cautious that fans won’t hang in for what’s to come for his beloved characters.

“I think I’m going to be hanging around Westeros while everyone else has left,” he said.