A Song Of Ice And Fire Just Lost Its Best Backup Plan

Published Sep 17, 2026, 3:55 PM EDT Nicholas Becher is a gaming journalist with an MFA in Creative Writing from FAU. With extensive experience playing video games, he covers all forms of gaming content at Screen Rant, from breaking news to the latest fan theories. Most-played games range from Clair Obscur to Civ to Elden Ring to Halo 2 and beyond. Sign in to your ScreenRant account It's no secret that George R.R. Martin's final novels in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise are taking a bit longer than expected. Seeing as it's been more than 15 years since A Dance with Dragons was released in 2011, The Winds of Winter has become one of fantasy's most notoriously delayed books, while its planned follow-up, A Dream of Spring, feels like an impossibility at this point. Unfortunately, Martin's updates in recent years haven't exactly inspired confidence. In April 2025, he stressed that Winds was not happening anytime soon, while a January 2026 interview revealed that roughly 1,100 manuscript pages were complete but that progress remained slow. More recently, Martin admitted on his blog that he has been overwhelmed by numerous projects and deadlines and was continuing to fall behind, and that his mental health has been a concern of late as well. That uncertainty has inevitably led fans to wonder what would happen to the series if Martin were ever unable to finish it, including speculation that another fantasy author could eventually take over, something Martin himself has repeatedly rejected. However unlikely it may have been, one of the oft-discussed backup authors for A Song of Ice and Fire has just confirmed he wants no part of it, and it looks like the fate of the Seven Kingdoms will remain in Martin's hands. INSTARimages.com Fans have long discussed potential backup writers who could possibly take over in the event that Martin was unable to complete the A Song of Ice and Fire series, with one name being at the top of the list due to his proven track record. Brandon Sanderson's name often comes up in these discussions due to his past work on the Wheel of Time series, which was famously incomplete which was famously incomplete when Robert Jordan passed away in 2007. Jordan's widow and editor, Harriet McDougal, ultimately chose Sanderson to finish the story using Jordan's notes, outlines, and completed material. What was originally envisioned as one final novel eventually became three: The Gathering Storm, Towers of Midnight, and A Memory of Light, giving Sanderson unique experience bringing another legendary fantasy author's unfinished saga to a conclusion. Unfortunately for anyone hoping history could repeat itself with ASOIF in the event Martin was unable to finish the series, Sanderson has now definitively ruled that possibility out. Speaking with IGN, he responded to the hypothetical by saying, "Respectfully, I'm the wrong person to do this." Sanderson explained that if Martin ever decided to let someone else complete the series, he deserves an author who fits his world as naturally as Sanderson felt he fit The Wheel of Time. Credit: Octavia Escamilla He also stressed that he doesn't believe Martin wants another writer to take over in the first place, which tracks with Martin's past sentiment toward the idea as well. When asked if Sanderson would ever consider finishing Martin's books, he responded as follows: My entire career is, in a way, a response to A Song of Ice and Fire. Much as that series is a response to popular fiction of the 1990s, like Wheel of Time. If I were to say yes, I would do my best to write it exactly as fans want and expect, but I would not say yes – because there are much more natural fits out there, and if George decided to go that direction, he'd deserve someone who is as good a fit for his world as I was for Wheel of Time. Sanderson went further by defending Martin against some of the criticism surrounding the delays. While acknowledging that beginning a series creates a responsibility to make a genuine effort to finish it, he argued that Martin doesn't literally "owe" readers another book and added that his own instinct is that Martin has been putting in serious effort to deliver Winds of Winter and A Dream of Spring, even if that might not feel apparent from the outside looking in. For now, that effectively removes one of the fandom's most commonly suggested contingency plans. If A Song of Ice and Fire ever does require another writer to finish it, Sanderson has made it clear in no uncertain terms that person won't be him. Game of Thrones $45 $85 Save $40 TV Show(s) Game Of Thrones, House of the Dragon, A Knight Of The Seven Kingdoms First TV Show Game Of Thrones Cast Emilia Clarke, Peter Dinklage, Sophie Turner, Kit Harington, Lena Headey, Maisie Williams, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Iain Glen, John Bradley, Alfie Allen, Conleth Hill, Liam Cunningham, Gwendoline Christie, Aidan Gillen, Isaac Hempstead-Wright, Rory McCann, Nathalie Emmanuel, Jerome Flynn, Rhys Ifans, Matt Smith, Graham McTavish, Fabien Frankel, Steve Toussaint, Eve Best, Emma D'Arcy, Matthew Needham, Olivia Cooke, Milly Alcock, Emily Carey