UPDATE: George R.R. Martin has vehemently denied McElhinney's claim that the books are done.
Game of Thrones is almost over, but there are still two more books in the A Song of Ice and Fire book series to go. It seems that the fans might not have to wait long for the last two books to be released, as Ser Barristan Selmy's actor is claiming that they are already finished.
The A Song of Ice and Fire novels by George R.R. Martin have had a sporadic release schedule, with only one new book being released during the entire run of Game of Thrones. A Dance with Dragons was the fifth book in the series and it was released shortly after the first season of Game of Thrones ended. The fans have waited impatiently since then for The Winds of Winter (the upcoming sixth novel in the series) to be released. The fact that the last two books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series have yet to be released has led to the last few seasons of Game of Thrones consisting of original material, which has had a polarizing response from the fans.
It's possible that the sixth and seventh books in the A Song of Ice and Fire series are already finished, as actor Ian McElhinney has claimed that the remaining novels are complete. McElhinney was speaking at Epic Con 2019 when a fan asked him if he was excited about the upcoming books. The video of his response was uploaded to YouTube by a user named naturalist3d.
"I dunno if you know more than me about this, but what I've been told is that George has already written book six and seven, and far as he is concerned there are only seven books. But he struck an agreement with Dave and Dan (the showrunners of the series) that he would not publish the final two books until the series is completed. So, all goes well, in another month or two, we might get book six and seven."
As of the time of writing, there is still no release date for The Winds of Winter. George R.R. Martin spoke of the status of The Winds of Winter as recently as May 12, where he claimed (via the Express) that he is still working on the book. Martin has spoken extensively about how he is still working on The Winds of Winter in numerous interviews over the past few years.
It's possible that Martin has been playing a long con all of these years and is waiting for the final episode of Game of Thrones to air in order to announce the release dates for the last two books, but the fans shouldn't hold their breath. It's more likely that McElhinney was given incorrect information, though this is a situation where we hope that we are wrong and that Martin has been sitting on two completed manuscripts for years now, just waiting for the opportunity to silence the critics who claimed that he hasn't been working all of these years.