'Game Of Thrones' Books Will Break Away From The Show With Major Plot Twist In 'Winds Of Winter,' Says George R.R. Martin

With fans eagerly anticipating the return of “Game of Thrones” for Season 6, those more excited about the show’s written source material, “A Song of Ice and Fire,” are still waiting for the sixth book in the series to come out. Now, with the show set to outpace the books in 2016, author George R.R. Martin says he’s officially decided to move forward with a twist that won’t be possible to adapt on the HBO series.

The beginning of this story takes place in April 2015, when the author spoke to Entertainment Weekly about his progress on the yet-unfinished book, “The Winds of Winter.” He told the outlet that he was, at the time, contemplating a plot twist that would involve a collection of about three to four characters. However, he mentioned that the show’s producers, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, had made decisions for one of the characters in question that would preclude the show from tackling the same plotline. The topic laid dormant for the better part of a year until IGN sat down with the author and asked him about it.

“I have decided to do that, yes. Will you know it? I don’t know. It’s fairly obvious because it’s something that involves a couple characters, one of whom is dead in the show but not dead in the books. So the show can’t do that unfortunately because they’ve killed a character I have not killed,“ Martin told the outlet. ”But that doesn’t narrow it down much because at this point there are like 15 characters that are dead in the show but still alive in the books. I get all this stuff about being bloody-minded, but David and Dan are bloodier than I am.”

Sadly, the author is right. Armed only with the information he teased, it’s nearly impossible to tell who he is talking about specifically. Characters that are alive in the show but dead in the books include Stannis Baratheon (Stephen Dillane), Barristan Selmy (Ian McElhinney) and Mance Rayder (Ciarán Hinds) among many others, according to Mental Floss.

Those waiting for the return of the show have a little less than two months to go before it premieres on HBO on April 24. However, those eager to finish reading Martin’s written works on the world of Westeros have no set release date for “The Winds of Winter.” The author has been working on it for quite some time now, so it could be ready any day.

As any “Game of Thrones” fan will attest, the show is nothing if not a big buildup to its eventual finale. Previously the author teased that he has plans for a bittersweet finish to his story that will both satisfy and enrage his cadre of devoted fans.