‘GoT’ books won’t end like HBO series

Winter’s not coming, but a new ending could be.

In a new interview, George R.R. Martin said the long-anticipated final two books of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series will feature a different ending than the “Game of Thrones” TV show that concluded in 2019.

Following a divisive final season, fans have done everything from calling for HBO to try again to peppering Martin for updates on the unfinished books at every opportunity. Martin teased his devout followers with a tantalizing idea: something else.

Speaking with WTTW Chicago, Martin said the unfinished “The Winds of Winter” and untitled final book (rumored to be “A Dream of Spring”) will go in a “somewhat different [direction]” than the TV show.

Martin put some of the blame for the show’s ending on his own writer’s block that led to the show needing to write new material for several seasons without the source’s safety net.

“Looking back, I wish I’d stayed ahead of the books,” Martin said. “My biggest issue there was when they began the series, I had four books already in print, and the fifth one came out just as the series was starting in 2011. I had a five-book head start, and these are gigantic books, as you know; I never thought they would catch up with me, but they did.”

“They caught up with me and passed me,” Martin said. “I’m still working on the book, but you’ll see my ending when that comes out.”

While the idea of a different ending to the series is a welcome prospect for some, fans will probably have to keep waiting as the notoriously slow-moving Martin did not provide an update about when the books might actually come out.