"Game of Thrones" showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss addressed the issue of the show catching up to "A Song of Ice and Fire," the book series that inspired it. During the Oxford Union panel, Benioff addressed that the show will spoil the ending of the novels.
"I kind of wish that there were some things we didn't have to spoil, in terms of the books," he stated, "but we're kind of stuck between a rock and a hard place. The show must go on."
The producers told Vanity Fair in 2014 that author George R.R. Martin already told them the ending to every character of the series and how his book series would reach its finale. At the time, Martin and his publishers believed that the remaining two books would be published before the TV series caught up.
That may no longer be the case.
"The Winds of Winter," the sixth book in the series, still has no confirmed release date, although a recent post by George R. R. Martin on his blog "Not a Blog" hinted that he will be skipping several conventions in an attempt to finish the book by this summer.
Even if the book gets published, there wouldn't be enough time for Martin to finish the seventh and last book, "A Dream of Spring," before the last season of the show comes out in 2017. Eventually, "Game of Thrones" will reveal the ending before the books do.
Fans of the novels shouldn't despair however, as the series has been confirmed to make drastic changes. A report by Vanity Fair confirmed that the following seasons will kill off characters that are still alive in the books.
"Luckily, we've been talking about this with George for a long time, ever since we saw this could happen, and we know where things are heading," Benioff said during the Oxford Union. "There might be a few deviations along the route, but we're heading towards the same destination."
