‘Dark Winds’ Season 2: George R.R. Martin Addresses Concerns Amid Writers Strike

Last week, author George R.R. Martin announced that Dark Winds Season 2 has wrapped, and will likely air at the end of this summer. Martin made two blog posts all about the WGA writers strike and what it meant for the projects he is working on. As an executive producer on Dark Winds, he gave fans something to look forward to as the TV industry slows down.

Martin voiced his strong support for the Writers Guild of America, noting that he had participated in a strike during his time as a TV writer in the 1980s. He later added: “Many of you will be wondering, rightfully, about the impact of the strike on my own shows. The second season of DARK WINDS wrapped several months ago. Post production has been completed on five of the six episodes, and will soon be done on the last. The show will likely air sometime this summer on AMC.No decision on the third season will be made until after the strike.”

Dark Winds is an adaptation of the Leaphorn & Chee novel series by Tony Hillerman – a friend and frequent collaborator of Martin over the years. It was created for TV by Graham Roland and premiered on AMC in June of 2022. The show has gotten generally positive reviews so far, with some fans recommending it to their friends and followers urgently, fearing that even a well-liked show could falter in the age of streaming.

Dark Winds is set in the American southwest in the 1970s and follows two police officers from the Navajo Nation. The first season generally adapted events from the first two books in Hillerman’s series – Listening Woman (1978) and People of Darkness (1980). It is a psychological thriller with six episodes per season, praised for its tight pacing and stylized melodrama.

Hillerman passed away in 2008, but before that he was active in the writing community in the southwest which Martin is still a part of. Last summer upon the show’s release, Martin wrote: “Tony was one of the first friends I made when I moved to New Mexico in 1979, and it’s an honor to be able to help to bring his stories and characters to the screen.”

Martin has been executive producing many novel adaptations in recent years, though not all have gone to series or aired. Of course, he is still best known for his epic fantasy series A Song of Ice and Fire and the HBO Game of Thrones franchise that has spawned from it. He gave updates on all those projects last week as well. He explained that the current series, House of the Dragon, will finish filming its season this month with no interruption during the writers strike. However, the upcoming spinoff A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms will have to pause until the strike is over. In the meantime, fans can find Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon on HBO Max, and Dark Winds on AMC+.