Oops? Fans think Amazon France may have accidentally leaked the release date for the next highly anticipated Game of Thrones novel. According to a screenshot obtained by the U.K.’s Independent, the online retailer created a placeholder page for The Winds of Winter and listed its release date as March 9, 2017.
The speculation sent fans — who have been waiting almost six years for the book — into a frenzy. However, GoT author George R.R. Martin’s publisher, Random House, told Entertainment Weekly in a statement Tuesday, September 6, that the date is incorrect.
“As his publisher, we support George R.R. Martin as he works hard to finish The Winds of Winter. Any on-sale dates currently listed online for the novel are incorrect,” the statement read. “Once we have a publication date for The Winds of Winter, the world will know.”
Amazon has previously posted false release dates for Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. In January, the author told fans that he’s not going to stress out over the sixth book.
“I am not going to set another deadline for myself to trip over,” he wrote on his website. “The deadlines just stress me out. I am going back to my stance from last March, before all this. It will be done when it’s done. And it will be as good as I can possibly make it.”
In the meantime, he’s given fans hope for the book by releasing potential chapters from The Winds of Winter on his blog.
As previously reported by Us, season 7 of Game of Thrones is currently filming in Ireland and won’t return to HBO until summer 2017.
Five titles have been released so far as part of Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire series. The fifth book, A Dance With Dragons, was released in 2011.
