Despite Game of Thrones now overtaking the novel series on which it is based in the world of television, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have promised that future books from George R R Martin won't be ruined when the sixth season hits the small screen.
Credit: HBO
Chatting to EW, Benioff explained: "People are talking about whether the books are going to be spoiled - and it's really not true... So much of what we're doing diverges from the books at this point. And while there are certain key elements that will be the same, we're not going to talk so much about that - and I don't think George is either.
"People are going to be very surprised when they read the books after the show. They're quite divergent in so many respects for the remainder of the show."
Weiss adds: "What makes the books so great is that George doesn't make meticulous blueprints for every beat of this story and then fill in the blanks dutifully going from A to B to C, fleshing out an outline... At a certain point, we realised we were going to outpace the books and we kind of chose to see it as a great thing on both sides - there's this amazing world George has created and now there are two different versions, and there's no reason we can see why you can't be thrilled and surprised and dismayed by both of these different versions of this world."
Game of Thrones season 6 debuts on HBO in the US on April 24, simulcast in the UK on Sky Atlantic and shown Mondays at 9pm on the same network thereafter.
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