If you want an idea of how popular Game of Thrones is, consider this: Yesterday, HBO announced the premiere date for Vinyl, its big fancy new music series from Martin Scorsese and Mick Jagger, and within a few hours, all anyone cared about was that the February 14 date means the sixth season of Game of Thrones will debut a few weeks later in the year than previous seasons. “Yes, fine, Scorsese and Jagger, but what about my dragons?” a nation shrieked. Really quite something, if you think about it.
But once you do the math and realize that the new season won’t start until late April, or even very early May, the next question becomes, “Why?” One of the more popular fan theories popping up here and there is that maybe, possibly, that few extra weeks is a buffer for George R.R. Martin, so he can release his next book before the season premiere and reveal the fate of Jon Snow himself. Joanna Robinson at Vanity Fair rounded up evidence a few weeks ago that Martin could be preparing to drop the next installment of the series, The Winds of Winter, sometime in early 2016, so hey, again, maybe!
Or maybe it has nothing to do with George R.R. Martin. Maybe HBO is just holding it for later in the spring so you can sit outside with your friends grilling and drinking beer late into the evening before heading in to watch the show. Or maybe a swarm of angry bees has been delaying filming, and they’ve somehow kept it under wraps. That’s the beauty of fan theories. Until presented with evidence in the alternative, you can just speculate wildly. My money’s on the bees, personally. (Via Vanity Fair)