George R.R. Martin has been doing the rounds amid the release of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, but one statement about his Dunk and Egg novellas has left fans feeling concerned.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Season 1 is based on the first novella, The Hedge Knight. Although the episodes are shorter than Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon, Season 2 is currently in production and is expected to release in 2027.
Season 2 will be based on the second Dunk and Egg tale, The Sworn Sword, meaning there’ll just be one more published novella – The Mystery Knight – to adapt after that. This is something Martin spoke about in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this month.
“The big issue is that I have only written three novellas, and I have a lot more stories about Dunk and Egg in my f**king head,” he said. “I’ve got to get them down on paper. I began writing two at various points in the past year. One is set in Winterfell and one set in the Riverlands.”
The reason his comments have left fans feeling on edge is because of the fact that George R.R. Martin is yet to finish his Ice and Fire novels, which were the basis for Game of Thrones.
After 15 years in development, The Winds of Winter – the penultimate book in the series – has become both a defining obsession for fans and a long-running albatross for Martin, one he’s previously described as “the curse of my life.”
The author has made it clear one of the reasons for its delay is because of all the other projects he’s involved in, including the ever-expanding GoT cinematic universe. The fact that he’s now considering writing more Dunk and Egg tales has sparked a strong reaction.
Following the release of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms Episode 2, one took to Reddit to write, “The recent statement George made about being afraid that the Knight of the Seven Kingdoms show will outpace the ‘books’ is crazy.
“Crazy. He really still intends to write more Dunk and Egg? I know at one point he suggested there could be 15 stories; I doubt we’ll see even one more. Crazy.”
Others responded with previous comments Martin has made about Dunk and Egg, including an online journal entry from 2017 where he wrote, “We’re not doing Dunk & Egg. Eventually, sure, I’d love that, and so would many of you.
“But I’ve only written and published three novellas to date, and there are at least seven or eight or ten more I want to write. We all know how slow I am, and how fast a television show can move.
“I don’t want to repeat what happened with Game of Thrones itself, where the show gets ahead of the books. When the day comes that I’ve finished telling all my tales of Dunk & Egg, then we’ll do a TV show about them… but that day is still a long ways off.”
Then, in 2023, Martin wrote on his blog: “Before we reach the end of the published stories, I will need to find time to write all the other Dunk & Egg novellas that I have planned. There are… gulp… more of them than I had once thought.
“There’s The Village Hero and the Winterfell story, the one with the She-Wolves, and maybe I need to write that Dornish adventure too to slip in between The Hedge Knight and The Sworn Sword, and after that there are… ah… more.
“I just need to finish The Winds of Winter, and then do either A Dream of Spring or volume two of Fire & Blood, and slip in a new Dunk & Egg between each of those in my copious spare time… and that will keep me ahead of Ira and his merry crew… for a few more years.”
The Winds of Winter is still the real issue
One fan wrote in response to his comments, “What the f**k? Does he think the TV show will just stop and continue when he releases new books?”
Another said, “The craziest part is that after 20 solid years of his overly optimistic predictions causing him nothing but problems, he still thinks THIS next book is going to go just swimmingly. Who’s he kidding at this point?”
A third countered, “No, the craziest part is that even 10 years after the original show overtook the original books, which he still hasn’t finished, he now has the nerve to say he’s getting worried about the spin-off show overtaking the spin-off books.”
One suggested Martin should “give up on the main series” and focus on Dunk and Egg to make it manageable, with another agreeing, “I have said this for years now.
“Like, not literally give up completely on the main series, but it’s very clear that he’s burnt out on it and has a lot of other stories cluttering his head. So, like, just let it go for a while and get all those other stories out of your head.
“Who knows, maybe if he did that he might finally be able to finish the main series without all the clutter and burn out halting his progress.”
Martin’s last main published novel was A Dance with Dragons in July 2011, and there have been updates and delays about the next entry ever since. In the aforementioned THR interview, he was asked whether he’s considered just giving up in The Winds of Winter.
However, he remains determined to finish it. “I would hate that,” he said. “It would feel like a total failure to me. I want to finish.”
As for the Dunk and Egg comments, there is a backup plan. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker told THR that Martin has given him the outline for 12 unpublished Dunk and Egg stories to use for future seasons.
In theory, this solves the issue should the author need to focus on other projects, and it’s something brought up in the recent Reddit discussion.
“Ira and HBO have the outlines,” said one. “They can continue the series through the sketches George gave them about the She-Wolves of Winterfell and the planned Riverlands story specifically.”
Others have jumped in to defend Martin, highlighting the fact that the other blog posts were written years ago. “That was nine years ago, so it’s really not that crazy that he changed his mind,” said one.
“His reversal on this is probably a sign of him being realistic about his limitations. He knows he’ll never tell those stories so he’s letting someone else tell them while he’s still in a position to have some influence on the product.”
Ukraine war latest live: Russian forces intensify pressure in Pokrovsk direction, military says