George R.R. Martin says his HBO deal is suspended, offers Winds of Winter update
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Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon mastermind George R.R. Martin is back with more updates on his various projects amid the ongoing writers strike.
Last we heard, all Westeros-related writers' rooms had closed — including development on his Tales of Dunk and Egg adaptation, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Now, in a new blog post, Martin announced that his overall deal with HBO was "suspended on June 1." HBO declined to comment when reached by EW.
The author inked a deal in 2021 to develop new projects for the network, following news that HBO was developing several Game of Thrones spinoffs to expand the world of its fantasy juggernaut. But, much like the rest of the industry, all of that is currently on pause as Hollywood writers and actors strike in pursuit of equitable pay and greater transparency in the streaming era.
Paras Griffin/Getty George R.R. Martin
The deal suspension is not unique to Martin or HBO. Following the start of the writers' strike, Amazon, HBO, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal, Disney, CBS Studios, and other struck studios announced their intent to suspend first-look and overall deals. In a tweet shared on May 8, The Wire creator David Simon shared a video of a picket line with the caption, "#WGAStrong. On the day that HBO called to suspend my deal after 25 years of writing television for them, I was doing the write thing."
"I have a bad feeling that this strike will be long and bitter," Martin wrote in his post. "It may get as bad as the infamous 1985 strike, though I hope not."
He added that though he joined the WGA in 1986 and has been through several strikes, this one is "the most important of my lifetime."
He continued, "I still have plenty to do, of course. In that, I am one of the lucky ones. (These strikes are not really about name writers or producers or showrunners, most of whom are fine; we're striking for the entry level writers, the story editors, the students hoping to break in, the actor who has four lines, the guy working his first staff job who dreams of creating his own show one day, as I did back in the 80s)."
Liam Daniel/ HBO Elliot Grihault, Harry Collett, Emma D'Arcy, Matt Smith, and Phoebe Campbell in 'House of the Dragon'
Martin is keeping busy with non-studio related work, including progress on his much-anticipated A Song of Ice and Fire novel The Winds of Winter. He wrote that he has been working on the novel "almost every day. Writing, rewriting, editing [and] writing some more. Making steady progress. Not as fast as I would like… certainly not as fast as YOU would like… but progress nonetheless. It keeps me out of trouble."
He also noted that the script is coming along for his Game of Thrones stage play The Iron Throne. "Maybe we will even be able to bring the show to the West End by… well, no, better not say, do not want to jinx the project."
Though Martin is presently uninvolved as a writer, production for the second season of House of the Dragon rolls on. Due to local union rules in the U.K., the series has been able to continue filming as planned and, according to Martin, significant progress has been made.
"I am told the second season is half done," he wrote, then clarified: "ALL of the scripts had been finished months before the WGA strike began. No writing has been done since, to the best of my knowledge."
Paul Fleming, the General Secretary of Equity, explained in a statement that the SAG-AFTRA strike is unlawful under United Kingdom law, which would leave participating actors with "no protection against being dismissed or sued for breach of contract by the producer or the engager."
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