It feels like ages since the Game of Thrones on HBO had its finale and the famous writer behind the books where the show was based on seems to have taken the time to reflect on what-ifs-and-could-have-been as in a recent interview, he admits that he wishes the books stayed ahead of the series and talked about how there was a large head start that he didn't anticipate the show finishing first.
After two years since the finale of Game of Thrones, George R.R. Martin speaks up on his feelings about the show finishing first before the book series. He said in an interview with Chicago PBS Station, "looking back, I wish I'd stayed ahead of the books." He even added that with the show being done while the books are still ongoing, "that made it a little strange."
Martin shared that there was a huge head start between the show when it first aired in 2011, and with the book series that he was not able to anticipate that Game of Thrones would surpass the publication of the books saying, "When they began that 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, and, you know, that made it a little strange — because now, the show was ahead of me, and the show was going in somewhat different directions."
Game of Thrones ended in 2019 with Season 8 Episode 6 and it is titled the Iron Throne. It was considered as the most-watched episode of the series with 13.61 million views on the very first live broadcast of the episode on HBO and it also secured the most-watched telecast of HBO ever recorded. On various streaming platforms, the finale episode had an additional 5.7 million viewers making a total of 19.3 million in viewership.
Winds of Winter is yet to be released and Martin says that its ending will somewhat take a different direction than how the show ended. Martin is currently contributing to the game Elden Ring while still writing books. He also has a show in the works with HBO, House of the Dragon, which is set for release sometime in early 2022.