The Book Series Was Originally Supposed To Be A Trilogy

When author George R. R. Martin first pitched his ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’ series, it was only meant to be a trilogy.

The Game of Thrones universe is so expansive it has led to several potential prequel and spinoff series for HBO as well as many books released detailing not only the stories of the characters but the history of Westeros as well. However, the original book series, A Song of Ice and Fire, was not going to be so detailed when first conceived by author George R. R. Martin.

According to Screen Rant, the A Song of Ice an Fire series was originally intended to be a trilogy of books. Martin originally started writing his series in 1991, when he had the idea for a boy seeing a man beheaded and the further discovery of a batch of wolf pups. After writing out a draft in 1994, Martin then began to pitch his story to agents. The original pitch involved details for a trilogy of books rather than the seven that are now planned.

The first book in the proposed trilogy was to center around the conflict between the Houses Stark and Lannister as they battled it out for the Iron Throne. Book two would see the introduction of Daenerys Targaryen and the Dothraki. Then, in book three, the Others — or White Walkers — would be introduced as the biggest threat yet.

The culmination of the third book would see all of the plot points from the prior books brought to a head and finally resolved. However, what actually happened is that book one managed to blow out from 700 words to 1,000 words and Martin decided he needed to write four books to compensate. Those four books became six and, finally, seven.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, George R. R. Martin has also recently announced that he hopes to have the latest book, The Winds of Winter, ready for publication on or before July 2020. This book was originally announced in 2011 and has had several possible publication dates since then. Once that book is released, the wait begins for the final book in the series, entitled A Dream of Spring.

Initially, when HBO released Game of Thrones, the plan was to have all books completed in order to stay ahead of the TV series. Unfortunately, this has not happened and now viewers actually know more about the outcome of the series than those who are fans of the books alone. However, it is possible that the conclusion of Martin’s books could be entirely different than what has played out in HBO’s series.