My colleagues here at Nerdist, lovable scamps they are, enjoy ribbing me about how George R.R. Martin will never finish writing A Song of Ice and Fire. Oh how they laugh and they laugh at my pain. What they don’t know is that they can’t upset me because on the inside I’m already dead. I lost all hope of ever seeing another completed story from him, let alone two more full length novels, long ago. But now, like Black Widow arriving in the rain to give Hawkeye hope he doesn’t want, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms showrunner Ira Parker says Martin is currently working on his fourth Dunk and Egg tale.
Parker spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the reaction to his HBO spinoff, the difficulties of shooting season two, and the future of the show, which he says would ideally mean eventually taking a long break so his young actor could age up. Before he can worry about that, though, he still has a third Dunk and Egg novella to make in season three. By the time that happens he might already have a fourth story ready to adapt.
While Parker was talking about he’d like to stretch this first era of Dunk and Egg stories to a fourth or fifth season, he dropped this Westeros bombshell:
Book four, which George is working on, takes place in a very cool location. And five is the last story point of Egg as a boy. So it’s a very natural ending place for us to take a break and come back when Dexter is older. So then we can do Egg the Prince, do some politics, do some fun stuff in Summer Hall (sic) and King’s Landing, and get a different vibe where they’re not on the road all the time.
…..Ira. …….Ira.
I love my boys Dunk and Egg. I would very much love all of the many stories Martin has said he wants to write about them. That includes the unwritten fourth (or fifth) tale he has long teased. The unwritten short story is known as “The She-Wolves of Winterfell.” That sounds like the story Parker is referring to since Winterfell is literally a “cool” place.
But because I love A Song of Ice and Fire, I can’t help but notice he said George R.R. Martin is “working on” it rather than “writing it.” Big difference. And there’s an even bigger difference between “writing” and “finishing.” I know because that’s the source of my pain.
Yeah, yeah. I know. I’m only mostly dead on the inside. I think that’s why my colleagues keep making all those jokes. As they surely will when they see this.