George R. R. Martin Is Working On A New Dragon Movie, But Fans Will Wish It Was 'GoT'

If you love Game of Thrones, or you follow someone on Twitter who loves Game of Thrones, or you're still Facebook friends with your freshman year roommate's best friend from high school and they still love Game of Thrones, chances are you know that the author is taking his sweet time to finish the book series. As it happens, George R. R. Martin is reportedly working on a new movie based on another work of his, and not currently writing more books.

On Thursday, Deadline and The Hollywood Reporter announced that Martin is working an animated adaptation of The Ice Dragon, which sounds like it's related to the Game of Thrones Season 7 finale, but it's not. It just isn't. (Even if fans are probably wishing it was part of the GoT universe.)

As io9's report explained, The Ice Dragon is a novella for children that centers on a young heroine bonding with an unusual type of dragon. This dragon, unlike most in fantasy, "radiates a magical and deadly chill." If Martin doesn't finish the Song of Ice and Fire novels soon, he'll be lucky if his fans can say the same about their chill. Even so, to be honest: This Ice Dragon movie idea sounds pretty cool. No pun intended.

Again, despite what may have happened to Viserion in the penultimate episode of Game of Thrones Season 7 — and you know what it was — The Ice Dragon film has nothing to do with GoT. It is not part of some Game of Thrones extended universe. The Ice Dragon is a separate entity; dude just loves him some dragons. And that's OK; Martin is so skilled at creating immersive, unusual fantasy worlds — it's only fair that younger generation gets a chance to experience it, too. (Considering the body count on Game of Thrones and the frequency with which its leads visit brothels of varying repute, it's decidedly more R-rated fare.)

Deadline reported that Martin is attached to produce the adaptation of The Ice Dragon. The Hollywood Reporter, however, suggested he may be in talks with Warner Brothers to write it as well. There's no firm timeline in place for the children's film, but it's obviously not conflicting with any pressing projects cluttering Martin's desk these days. After all, he has at least two more novels in his Game of Thrones series that fans are expecting him to write. He's been pushing back the release dates for years.

At this point, the HBO show has famously eclipsed its own source material, forging ahead with storylines and characters that long ago diverged from their literary counterparts. And that's all well and good, except for some fans began reading the novels when they were first released in the '90s. Remember how difficult the wait was for new Harry Potter books, way back when? Imagine the wait stretching out for decades, while the film series just decided what was going to happen. It's understandable that fans are chomping at the bit for Martin to write the next book in the saga, and not something else entirely.

Of course, it's not like there will be no new GoT content at all in 2018. As io9 reported in February, "the next book in the A Song of Ice and Fire franchise will be the first half of Fire and Blood," which is basically a textbook to the Westeros universe. Or the first half of it, anyway.

Per Martin, Fire and Blood is "a compilation of [the] fake histories of the Targaryen kings,” aka Khaleesi's ancestors, and will feature "new chapters and expanded notes" from The World of Ice and Fire encyclopedia. Is it The Winds of Winter? No, not quite. But it's still something for fans to look forward to — and may well remind Martin why he began writing the Song of Ice and Fire series in the first place. Maybe. Hopefully.