The fifth season of "Game of Thrones" might be missing some fan favorite characters, but it doesn't mean they're gone forever.
Kristian Nairn, who plays Hodor on the HBO series, confirmed to ABC he won’t be filming on the “Game of Thrones” set this year. According to Narin, Bran and his gang are at the end of their storyline in the novels.
"We’re actually not in Season 5, by the way,” Narin said. “We have a season off and we have a year's hiatus, solely because I imagine our storyline is up to the end of the books. So, I get my year off now to do Rave of Thrones and gallivant all over the world."
Though fans may be upset Hodor and Bran won’t be in the fifth season, it gives George R.R. Martin more time to finish the sixth installment of “A Song of Fire and Ice” saga, “Winds of Winter.”
Martin is under pressure to finish the sixth book, but refuses to rush his writing process. The writer recently told Digital Spy he isn’t sure when he’ll complete “Winds of Winter.”
"I don't know,” Martin said. “I have days where I make lots of progress, I have days where I make next to no progress, I have days where I think I'm going backwards because I don't like what I wrote yesterday. So I've given up making any predictions on that. I'm just writing it and when it's done, it'll be done."
Whether Martin finishes his novels before the fifth season premieres won’t affect HBO’s “Game of Thrones” schedule. Martin reiterated the show is its own entity and his work won’t affect the show. However, Martin won’t be contributing to the fifth season.
"I'm not writing a script for season 5, but I'm still a co-executive producer, so I'm still involved on that level," Martin told Digital Spy. "It takes me about three weeks to a month to write a script, and with all the pressure to finish and deliver 'The Winds of Winter,' I decided my time was better spent finishing the book than taking off three weeks to a month to get a script done."
