George R.R. Martin

‘Game of Thrones’ makes an “Oathbreaker” of the resurrected Jon Snow, but does the famed Tower of Joy finally drop the other shoe? What other major major returns and incremental boosts populated this week? Find out in our full review!

Even amid the anticipated return that capped off Sunday’s Game of Thrones, there remain plenty of unanswered questions for viewers and book readers alike. Now, Kit Harington may have debunked one major theory about Jon Snow’s revival on the HBO side, but will the same prove true of George R.R. Martin’s Winds of Winter?

Like Star Trek before it, Game of Thrones has given eager fans plenty to decipher by the creation of its own unique languages, which themselves occasionally offer easter eggs into the mythology. One such secret arrived with Sunday’s death-laden Season 6 episode, as fans managed to translate the Valyrian prayer Melisandre utilized to resurrect … well, [SPOILER].

Only days to go before the Season 6 premiere, Game of Thrones fans aren’t any closer to learning how quickly the series will end, especially as HBO confirmed that spinoffs were out of the question for now. That said, George R.R. Martin still has in mind the perfect choice for an extension of the franchise, which might be better served as a tie-in movie.

If last night’s news of Game of Thrones potentially ending its final two seasons over just 13 episodes weren’t a sobering enough reminder of the series’ longevity, talk naturally turns to the possibility for spinoff, or even other series set among the world of Westeros. Sadly, HBO casts all your spinoff dreams into the fire, barring any real desire from showrunners.

If the last year of TV news has taught us anything, Game of Thrones actors don’t have the most trustworthy record when it comes to keeping secrets. Maisie Williams herself has “confirmed” a death or two most know to be false, though the longtime series star has something to say to the God of Death for a long-held fan theory.

Game of Thrones whipped fans into a fiery frenzy with its second full trailer for Season 6, revealing several surprise returns and the biggest dragons yet, among other Snow-y secrets. We couldn’t help but dive way deeper into each frame of footage. So what new secrets of Game of Thrones Season 6 were hidden in the flames?

Peter Dinklage hosting last night’s SNL meant that the upcoming sixth season of Game of Thrones hung over the entire evening like a specter. Even when the show wasn’t specifically calling out and calling upon HBO’s series, you were constantly aware of it. After all, why else would Dinklage be hosting the show at this specific time? But when the show did turn its aim on Game of Thrones, it was on-point with an opening monologue where Dinklage asks A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin to write some jokes.

Game of Thrones has seemingly already advanced to a point that odds and ends of George R.R. Martin’s as-yet-unpublished novels have perhaps been spoiled, while Season 6 stands to answer some of the series’ biggest questions ahead of readers. Not so, perhaps, as showrunners claim Season 6 won’t actually spoil the books, and is instead “quite divergent.”

More-so than ever, Game of Thrones Season 6 will take us into the Winds of Winter spoiler territory that George R.R. Martin himself has yet to schedule a date for, let alone publish. Already, the HBO drama has taken a few dark turns not yet found in Martin’s literary work, though the author admits a major Season 5 sequence will in fact unfold in one of the upcoming books.