NEW YORK, NEW YORK - APRIL 03: George R. R. Martin attends the "Game Of Thrones" Season 8 Premiere on April 03, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)

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George R.R. Martin doesn’t give a lot of interviews these days, busy as he is writing the sixth volume in his A Song of Ice and Fire series, The Winds of Winter. But he was on the red carpet at the Game of Thrones season 8 premiere event last week, where Leanna Aguilera of Entertainment Tonight was able to ask him a few questions about what to expect. Take a look:

“It’ll be done when it’s done,” Martin said of Winds. “It’s been going very well lately, so knock wood.” It’s not much, but that’s the most substantial update we’ve gotten on Winds for a while. Dare we hope for a 2019 release? 2020 at the latest…?

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Probably best not to dwell on it. Aguilera also asked Martin if there are any dropped storylines from his novels he wishes had been included on Game of Thrones. “Lady Stoneheart,” he answered immediately. “That’s certainly, in the book I’m writing now, an important thread.”

Even with a novel of ordinary size, when you adapt it for television or film, it usually involves cutting or simplifying, and my books are not books are ordinary length…There are hard choices sometimes, but that’s the business.

Finally, Martin talked about whether the ending to A Song of Ice and Fire will be the same to the ending to Game of Thrones, or rather, he opted not to talk about it. “Watch both and read the book and you decide.”

The rest of the video is about Game of Thrones fan theories, by the way, and I’m sure it’s fun but I’m far and away the most interested in what Martin has to say. Aguilera was pretty bold straight up asking about Winds; it looks like a lot of journalists were shying away from that line of questioning.

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