Game of Thrones creator George R. R. Martin has announced that he will not be attending this year’s San Diego Comic Con after all.
The A Song of Ice and Fire author, 73, had initially confirmed to fans that he would be attending to discuss House of the Dragon, but now appears to have changed his mind.
Martin had been expressing reservations about travelling to San Diego, citing health concerns in relation to the rising Covid cases in the USA.
And in an official statement posted to his WordPress website, ‘the only place for official communication’ from him, his absence has now been confirmed.
‘We’re sad to report due to the high levels of the new variant of Covid that George has decided to cancel his in-person appearances at San Diego Comic Con this year’, the statement said.
Martin usually posts to his WordPress site himself, but this latest communication is credited to the writer’s associates, Elio Garcia and Linda Antonsson.
They continued: ‘There will be signatures will be floating around on the Comic Con Floor. We hope everyone has a great Con and again apologize for our cancelations’.
The announcement comes just a week after Martin let fans know that he would be travelling to the convention to show off House of the Dragon, the new HBO prequel series to Game of Thrones.
‘I will be heading to San Diego for Comicon at the end of the month, for the first time in… ah… a bunch of years’, he said.
He continued: ‘I’ll be joining the House of the Dragon panel… with showrunners Ryan Condal and Miguel Sapochnik and eleven of our cast members.’
There were plans to arrange a signing event for Martin at the convention, but he expressed concerns about the potential of him catching Covid.
‘Truth be told, I am a tad anxious’, he said. ‘I have managed to avoid getting Covid so far, but if this Comic Con is like the last one I went to, I am going to be in one big room with 150,000 other people’.
Martin is fully vaccinated, but has only left his home once since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020: ‘I do not want Covid, not even a mild case’.
House of the Dragon premieres on HBO Max and Sky Atlantic on August 21.
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