You can file this one under both internet hoax and “no duh.” A tweet claiming to have insider information regarding the release date of George R.R. Martin’s The Winds of Winter has turned out to be pure fantasy—just like Martin’s Westeros-based tale of zombies and dragons, though we sure do hope the book arrives one of these days.
Entertainment Weekly reached out to Bantam Books as the viral tweet gained momentum and got this very direct response: “The online chatter you are seeing regarding a supposed leak is false.”
You can understand why someone would want to make up a fake story about The Winds of Winter: it’s become one of the most anticipated book releases ever, a distinction that only grows as the months and years pass without its arrival. Martin’s previous release in his series, A Dance With Dragons, hit shelves all the way back in 2011—the same year Game of Thrones debuted on HBO and brought the author’s creation to an exponentially larger audience.
The show ran for eight seasons and famously overtook the events chronicled in Martin’s books, and fans have long hoped The Winds of Winter might help soothe the frustration over some of Game of Thrones‘ later-season story choices. Waiting for Martin’s version, however, has become something of a spectator sport, as the author has kept busy with a stream of other projects while issuing occasional non-updates about Winter‘s progress.
The tweet, posted by one “Ned Stark,” screenshots a message board post from a person claiming to be “a production assistant at Bantam Spectra.” It asserts that Martin turned in the full Winds of Winter manuscript this past January at around 1,600 pages, with an official announcement in the works and an eye toward a holiday 2026 release.
But it’s not true. Sorry if you fell for it. We all want to believe! Fortunately, at least, our next hit of genuine Westeros content is coming to HBO this June with House of the Dragon season three; we also have season two of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms to look forward to next year. As for The Winds of Winter … all we can say for certain is that we know even less than Jon Snow at this point.
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