‘Game of Thrones’ Guru George R. R. Martin Not That Involved in Elden Ring

The hype for Elden Ring has been building for a long time, and the recent trailer took that hype to the next level. Part of the reason for this hype is that Game of Thrones scribe George R. R. Martin is helping craft the story, but now it looks like he is less involved than fans hoped.

This information comes from a lowkey interview Martin gave to local news station WTTW. He was on a trip to receive an honorary doctorate from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism when he gave the interview, and the station eventually asked him about Elden Ring.

Martin dropped a bombshell when he mentioned, “My work on it was actually done years ago. These games, they’re like movies. They take a long time to develop.” Adding salt to the wound, Martin also clarified, “They wanted worldbuilding… I worked up a fairly detailed background for them, and then they took it from there.”

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. As any readers of the A Song of Ice and Fire series know, no living author does worldbuilding as well as Martin. But the interview seemed to make it clear that Martin was very hands-off in his creative input, and it doesn’t sound like he had anything to do with the “characters and plot.”

If you were hoping Martin was a very hands-on game writer who had constant input, this news may be disappointing. But on the bright side, it means that Elden Ring won’t be distracting Martin from working on the long-awaited book The Winds of Winter.