‘Game of Thrones’ season 3 spoilers: When is George R.R. Martin appearing?

At some point during the run of “Game of Thrones,” you knew that this was probably going to happen: a cameo appearance courtesy of the man who started it all in George R.R. Martin. But when is it actually going to happen? Based on the information that we are getting now, it’s not going to be as early as you initially thought.

While executive producer David Benioff said earlier this week that the author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, who also writes an episode of the show every season, would be turning up in an episode this year, it turns out that he actually misspoke. Instead, HBO confirms to Deadline that we are going to actually be seeing Martin’s cameo during season 4, which is supposedly already in the story-building process.

Of course, the twist here is that HBO has not formally renewed the show for another season yet, but we can go ahead and proclaim this to be the worst-kept secret in all of television. This is one of the network’s most-successful franchises, and they would be quite frankly insane if they did not want to bring it back for more given the high ratings it gets for live viewings along with DVR figures, DVD sales, merchandise, and the launching pad that it provides as a lead-in to some new shows that need viewership straight out of the gate. Season 4 will probably once again start shooting in July, but we’re not going to have any more concrete details for a while.

What do you think about the idea of a George R.R. Martin cameo? Be sure to share your thoughts below, and you can also read some more scoop about Arya Stark by heading on over to the link here.

Photo: hBO