By If you're currently paralysed by the conflict between desperately needing to know how Game of Thrones ends and a fear of the deep existential emptiness which will suddenly occupy your soul when it's gone, don't worry. George RR Martin feels exactly the same.
"I don't think it should be the final season," Martin immediately told the Hollywood Reporter when it was pointed out that he was at the premiere of the final season. "But here we are. It seems to me we just started last week. Has it been longer than that? The time has passed by in a blur. But it's exciting.
"I know it's an end, but it's not much of an end for me. I'm still deep in writing the books. We saw five other sequel shows in development. I think I'm going to be hanging around Westeros while everyone else has left."
To be fair to the bloke, it is his life's work. Understandably, he doesn't want to let go just yet. As he points out, there's a lot more Westeros-based shenanigans in the pipeline. The first spin-off, which is apparently very close to shooting, is based on "a sentence or two in [pseudo-historical companion book] The World of Ice and Fire", which told the full story of Westeros. But what's it actually like, George? What is it actually like?
"It's different," he said. "It's definitely very different. It's set thousands of years in the past. You're looking at a whole different era of Westeros. No dragons, no Iron Throne, no King's Landing."
The World of Ice and Fire ended up being a pretty mammoth undertaking that ballooned to about 350,000 words long before being trimmed back. "Boy, I invented a ton of new characters. I wish I was 30 years old instead of 70," Martin said. "I would have more time to write many, many more books about all of these characters. But it is what it is!" It is, indeed, what it is.
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