George R.R. Martin Just Made an Announcement on His Blog, and Fans Are Going Wild with Speculation

Pray to the old gods and the new that this latest George R.R. Martin update means good news about the long-awaited final novels of the A Song of Ice and Fire series.

Taking to his "Not a Blog" blog for the first time in three weeks, the Game of Thrones author revealed that he'll be hosting a screening at World Con in Dublin, Ireland.

The screening will be of Forbidden Planet, the 1956 sci-fi classic, and Martin will join Maura McHugh, a fellow fantasy and comic book author, for a panel afterward. The screening will start at 8 p.m. on August 17.

Besides posting the link to buy tickets, the update revealed that the 70-year-old author "will NOT sign merchandise on the evening, nor will he be able take questions about the A Song of Ice and Fire novels or the Game of Thrones television series." However, that hasn't stopped fans of Martin from wildly speculating that he may drop some juicy tidbit about the final two books at the upcoming appearance.

The mastermind behind the Game of Thrones and the A Song of Ice and Fire series last gave an update about The Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring in May of this year.

Speaking of his last two novels (which he said will fill "3,000 manuscript pages"), Martin wrote that characters (and animals!!!) from the books that didn't make it into the HBO adaptation (or were killed off) will cause a "butterfly effect," aka a few seemingly minor changes will result in huge differences in plot down the line.

"There are characters who never made it onto the screen at all, and others who died in the show but still live in the books… so if nothing else, the readers will learn what happened to Jeyne Poole, Lady Stoneheart, Penny and her pig, Skahaz Shavepate, Arianne Martell, Darkstar, Victarion Greyjoy, Ser Garlan the Gallant, Aegon VI, and a myriad of other characters both great and small that viewers of the show never had the chance to meet," Martin wrote in this earlier post.

"And yes, there will be unicorns… of a sort…" he continued. Welp, this is ~magical~ news. Martin also confirmed that his books will differ a bit from the TV show ending. (Which, thank the seven gods.)

So, perhaps the author will let slip a release date of Winds of Winter during this Irish WorldCon appearance? Hey, a girl can dream (of spring)...