The conflicting reports on the release date "Winds of Winter" only served to confuse fans who are anticipating the latest opus from George R. R. Martin. The recent report about the crew of "Game of Thrones" already reading the manuscript for the said book illustrates this point.

The rumors about the "Winds of Winter" release date being announced soon was kickstarted when "Game of Thrones" director Jack Bender was asked in a Reddit AMA whether he already read a draft of the manuscript.

The director simply said, "Yes," which sent netizens on a frenzy.

He also said that he was approached to do an episode for "Game of Thrones" but declined.

"Yes, I was approached to work on a prior season early on, and unfortunately I couldn't because of my schedule and other commitments - because you have to commit a REALLY Long period of time to do two episodes," he said.

Nevertheless, Watchers on the Wall cautioned fans against reading too much into Jack Bender's response.

"A very reliable WotW source has confirmed to us that Bender hasn't seen an advanced copy/draft of The Winds of Winter, and must have confused it with the season 6 outline when answering the question," it said.

George R. R. Martin previously told Entertainment Weekly that he wants to announced the "Winds of Winter" release date prior to the airing of "Game of Thrones" season 6, which would be in April next year.

"I wish it was out now. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic about how quickly I can finish. But I canceled two convention appearances, I'm turning down a lot more interviews-anything I can do to clear my decks and get this done," he said.

And to avoid confusion regarding the release date for "Winds of Winter," George R. R. Martin advised his followers to just read on his blog for the official announcement rather than scouring the Internet for information that might not be true.