Game of Thrones season 8: George RR Martin turns down cameo to complete upcoming novel

George RR Martin has turned down the opportunity to make a cameo appearance in the highly-anticipated eighth season of Game of Thrones  to focus on completing his forthcoming novel, The Winds of Winter, Entertainment Weekly reported.  [caption id=“attachment_5218401” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] George RR Martin. Twitter @WatchersOTWall[/caption] The best-selling author, whose A Song of Ice and Fire novels formed the inspiration behind HBO’s smash hit fantasy drama series, was invited by showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss to feature in a scene in season 8, Martin told the weekly. “David and Dan invited me to a cameo in one of the final episodes, which I was tempted to do, but I didn’t think just for the sake of a cameo I could take the time to return to Belfast," he said. Martin mentioned that he did a cameo role in the first Game of Thrones’ pilot episode, where he featured as one of the guests at Daenerys Targaryen’s wedding. The scene was subsequently scrapped as the role was portrayed by Tamzin Merchant back then. Later, Emilia Clarke replaced the actress as Dany. The Winds of Winter is the planned sixth novel in Martin’s epic fantasy series, which he has been struggling to complete for the last eight years. Game of Thrones will return for a final season on 14 April.