As some always suspected, George RR Martin is attempting to change the end of ASOIAF because he didn’t like how the audiences responded to his intended end to the epic fantasy saga:
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Martin said, “[The book’s ending is] going to be significantly different.”
“Some characters who are alive in my book are going to be dead in the show, and vice versa,” he added.
Now, obviously characters being dead in the show that are still alive in the books is already the case, but this is significantly different from what Martin was saying before the show ended and even immediately after it ended back in 2019.
Nevertheless, he shared some specifics about what he is now planning for his ending, “I was going to kill more people. Not the ones they killed [in the show]. They made it more of a happy ending. I don’t see a happy ending for Tyrion. His whole arc has been tragic from the first. I was going to have Sansa die, but she’s been so appealing in the show, maybe I’ll let her live …”
None of this changes his fundamental problem of having introduced FAR too many perspective characters, which is why it is unlikely that either THE WINDS OF WINTER or any more books in the series will ever be published in his lifetime.
And frankly, I think he should change the ending, assuming he is somehow able to find a way to wrap it up. Because the ending of the television show was terrible and indefensible in literally every single way. There was no sense in which it was either satisfying or made any sense; it would have been much better if he had shown the courage of his convictions and had the Night King triumph over all.
That’s what his crabbed little soul really craves, but he doesn’t have the backbone for it.