Game of Thrones fans are gettin used to long waits.

The latest official announcement from HBO has confirmed that the final season of the TV blockbuster will not follow the usual annual pattern.

Season 8 will hit TV screens some time in 2019.

Ther is a far greater gap between the releases of each book in the original source material, but could it really be true that the author has already finished Book Six and even Seven but is being held back by HBO to maintain the mystery and surprises in the TV version?

A Reddit user writes: “I think it’s likely he has at least finished The Winds of Winter and possibly A Dream of Spring, however after starting the airing of GoT, he has an obligation/formal contract with HBO not to release them until after they have aired the story lines including the contents of each book.

“The amount of interest in the show will remain higher if the entire audience has no clue as to what will happen next. This mystery creates a higher buzz surrounding the show/books and provides free advertising. Holding off the book then allows the readers of the series to get a double fill of excitement by watching the show for initial surprises and then reading for the greater detail.”

DID GEORGE RR MARTIN JUST CONFIRM BOOK SIX WILL BE OUT IN 2018?

These Machiavellian manoeuvres sound like something straight from the pages of the beloved books themselves.

El Chupatigre adds: “I’m just stating that with how important the finales are for these big budget shows they typically want them to be very hush-hush. Even Lost had different endings filmed so nobody would know who was in the casket. Therefore, HBO wouldn’t want people knowing the ending, so even if they just followed a skeleton of the major plots, then it could still ruin the surprise wanted by HBO for the finale.”

Even though the plot of the show and the novels has started to diverge, it is accepted that the HBO team is working towards a final act which has been laid out by Martin.

It is an intriguing idea, but George RR Martin is a notoriously slow writer and the gaps between books were getting greater even before the TV adaptation began. A Feast For Crows came out five years after a Storm of Swords and tehn it was six years before A dance With Dragons hit bookshelves.

Furthermore, the author seems refreshingly transparent with his fans, constantly blogging and updating on his progress, or lack thereof.

In fact, he recently wrote that he hopes to have one or even two Game of Thrones worls out this year. As well as Winds of Winter, he has been preparing a spin-off Fire and Blood, about the history of the Targaryens.

Fans needs to hod tight and they will (hopefully) be rewarded very soon.