I know what's intended

Books: two more, one called The Winds Of Winter and one called A Dream Of Spring. TWOW might have come out last year, it didn't. It might have come out this year, it hasn't. It will hopefully come out before Season Seven of the show and I think that's the deadline GRRM is working towards. He typically does a book every four years or so but is (rightly) determined not to rush it. He's said (my paraphrase) "in fifty years when people look back they'll say 'what a great book series' or 'it felt rushed at the end' - not 'it's great that he met all his deadlines'. He knows this is his legacy and he's determined to Do It Right. There's speculation there might be too much material and it might spill into three more books but I for one hope that doesn't happen (as I'd still like to be alive when the last one comes out!).

Series: one more has been commissioned and they're talking about seven in total so two more total after this one. Which feels like not nearly enough (#fanboy). I think there will be some minor spoiling of the next book in this series and the next series will completely spoil it if it's not out beforehand. It's possible that the last series will be a "split series" (cf Breaking Bad, others) with maybe 15 episodes some of near-feature length released over a couple of years or so. But all the talk from HBO has been of a seven-series run.

The showmakers know the ending, so if GRRM has the bad taste to die before he's finished (he's even older and fatter than me) we'll find out what happens, though it would be a Major Bummer were he not to finish the books. It seems inevitable that the end of the series will come before the end of the books so we'll know the outcome in broad terms, though the books have a much finer granularity and literally hundreds more characters.

Posted By: Old Man, Jun 1, 22:56:30