‘The Winds of Winter’ Leaks Say George R.R. Martin Has Finished the Book

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The first book in George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series, A Game of Thrones, was published in 1996. The fifth book, A Dance With Dragons, followed in July 2011, shortly before HBO began its adaptation, Game of Thrones. HBO’s Game of Thrones ran for eight seasons and was a massive hit. Since then, HBO has released two prequel series: House of the Dragon, which will return for a third season this June, and A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, which recently finished its first season. However, fans are still eagerly awaiting the sixth book in the series, The Winds of Winter. They’ve now been waiting for it as long as it took for the first five books to be published.

Online fans are getting excited about a claim made on the 4chan message board. Someone posing as a production assistant at Bantam Spectra posted that George R.R. Martin finished writing The Winds of Winter in December 2025 and submitted the complete manuscript in January 2026. The anonymous poster also claims Martin’s recent silence is due to a marketing strategy, with the publisher wanting him to stay out of the public eye.

We’ve been working on editing and designing everything since February. The official reveal is planned for Comic-Con, but we expect he’ll announce it on his blog beforehand – he tends to do things his own way. We’re aiming for a release around the fall to capitalize on the holiday shopping season.

This book is extremely lengthy – comparable to the combined size of the later books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series. While I won’t reveal the exact word count to avoid giving away the source material, it’s roughly equivalent to 1600 pages. Readers looking for a substantial read won’t be let down.

The marketing team is planning a campaign with HBO, so we can expect some related content to be released when the new product comes out. Let’s work on figuring out what that content will be.

“AFFC” is short for A Feast for Crows, the fourth book in the Song of Ice and Fire series, published in 2005. The person making these claims doesn’t offer any evidence, stating they want to keep their job. They also say that Jon Snow will return in The Winds of Winter, after being killed at the end of A Dance With Dragons. This isn’t surprising to fans of the TV show, where Jon Snow is famously brought back to life after his death.

Is This ‘Winds of Winter’ Leak Real?

It’s impossible to confirm if this leaked information is real, so we’ll have to wait and see if the events predicted actually happen. Just to clarify, San Diego Comic-Con is scheduled for July.

Even setting aside the fact that 4chan isn’t known for accurate information, there are a few points worth considering. While it’s true George R.R. Martin hasn’t been posting much lately, he hasn’t disappeared completely – he wrote a detailed blog post in February about the upcoming Game of Thrones stage play, The Mad King. The post also suggests The Winds of Winter might be similar in length to A Feast for Crows and A Dance with Dragons combined. However, it’s odd to suggest this, considering those two books were originally planned as a single volume but had to be split due to their length. It seems strange the publisher would allow a similarly long book now. Finally, the author of the post, who claims to work in publishing, makes a lot of errors with capitalization and apostrophes.

Is there any validity to this recent leak about the book’s completion? It’s hard to say. George R.R. Martin last publicly discussed The Winds of Winter in December 2025, which coincides with the timing the leaker claimed the book was finished. As usual, fans carefully analyzed his every word. He told The Hollywood Reporter that he still needs to write more of the Dunk and Egg series and another Fire and Blood book. He expressed hope that finishing those projects would allow him to complete The Winds of Winter relatively soon, but admitted it’s been designated as a priority, he sometimes lacks the motivation, and feels significantly behind schedule on all his work.

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2026-04-13 05:50