E3 isn’t officially kicked off just yet, but Thursday’s Summer Games Fest brought lots of gaming news with it, including a George R.R. Martin project that had fans talking. Elden Ring finally got a trailer on Thursday, along with a January 2022 release date that had fans talking about the From Software project.
But while a new title from the makers of Dark Souls and Bloodborne looks intriguing as ever, those more concerned with the going-ons in Westeros had a lot to say about the author of the Song of Ice and Fire series doing more work outside of the Thrones universe. Though Elden Ring got plenty of traction on Thursday, it was Martin’s name that trended on Twitter as fans reacted and made jokes about the long-awaited next installment in Martin’s fantasy epic.
We already saw the Game of Thrones TV series surpass the plot of the last book, which was published in July of 2011. Martin is apparently hard at work on that next book, though he’s blown past a number of self-imposed deadlines and given scant details outside of some blog posts every now and again.
Which is why news that his Elden Ring will see the light of day in a few months made for a lot of jokes about the book many people are desperate for him to finish.
George RR Martin is never gonna finish y’all’s little book lmao https://t.co/vMHC9cIxLY
— Tu Desastre Personal (@TheDazzlingOne) June 10, 2021
George RR Martin did the Irish exit but for a book series, and honestly I respect it
— Washington Post TikTok Guy
(@davejorgenson) June 10, 2021
The internet seeing George RR Martin work on other (epic) projects that aren’t The Winds of Winter pic.twitter.com/UckQ6VWJQw
— Ashley (@AshWHurst) June 10, 2021
Saw George RR Martin trending, and I feared the worst… that he actually finished this book and I owe someone money pic.twitter.com/6C0QnFlOvF
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Dan (@xWing_Dan) June 10, 2021
Everyone in the WORLD was locked in their house for all of 2020 or at least two weeks and STILL george rr martin couldn’t finish winds of winter…. pic.twitter.com/xRUnCytCPJ
— Fire Resistant (@_fireresistant) June 10, 2021
George RR Martin finding out that one of his projects is actually going to be finished for once: pic.twitter.com/sh56AcoANQ
— Trey the Explainer (@Trey_Explainer) June 10, 2021
As some writers pointed out, maybe Martin not saying much about the project is actually a good thing.
Elden Ring is the ultimate collaboration: From Software’s haunting aesthetics, world-class design, and brilliant lore combined with George RR Martin’s not saying anything about it for two years
— Jason Schreier (@jasonschreier) June 10, 2021
Honestly, some could get why he’s dragging his feet a bit.
george rr martin taking all that game of thrones/ASOIAF money to just go and do a dark souls video game while blogging about the mets is so fucking cool
— guy who thinks martin braithwaite can score
(@wokeimperialist) June 10, 2021
Martin said in the summer of 2020 that he’s living a “very boring” life in exile trying to finish The Winds of Winter, but so far we’ve seen no pages from the notoriously slow writer. And any news about work that isn’t that book is going to irk fans, even if that work looks like something they’d very much want to play on PC or console.