"The Winds of Winter" release date is all over the news lately even though George R.R. Martin had made an official announcement with regard to this.

Breathe Cast reports that there are a lot of fan theories for the release date of the epic novel of George R.R. Martin, "A Song of Ice and Fire". Compared to other book series, Martin's opus gained a lot of die-hard fans and fanatics over the years that are also hard at work at the rumor mill and piecing together what they can for the much anticipated "The Winds of Winter" book.

However, the author himself has already made a firm announcement before that all these rumors are false. He also said that he will make the announcement himself without any fancy tricks.

Fans have mostly a mixed reception on the epic novel "A Song of Ice and Fire" and the "Game of Thrones". A huge part of this comes from the fact that George R.R. Martin has a brutal and harsh attitude in deciding the fate of his characters. And while the author admits that he has a hard time in writing tough scenes in his epic novel, he always delivers a good twist and his fans are always in awe on what they will read.

That is why fans are always kept on the edge on the stories left by George R.R. Martin and they are always looking forward to the next instalments, especially in the upcoming "The Winds of Winter" and "Game of Thrones" Season 5.

The latest rumor to hit "The Game of Thrones" is Benjen Stark being Coldhands. According to Huffington Post, Coldhands is thought to be once a man of the Night's Watch and he is supposed to play a pivotal role in Bran's journey to the north. However, according to the source of the report, a Reddit user, _honeybird, read the manuscript of A Dance With Dragons at Texas A&M's Cushing Library and he found some notes from Martin to his editor Anne Groell.

Inquisitr made an additional report stating that when Anne Groell, George Martin's Editor, asked "Is this Bnnjen? I think it's Benjen... And does Bran never recognize him [as his long lost uncle] because he never sees his face fully?" Martin strongly replied "NO".

Now that this fan theory was shot down, we can expect that a new one will come along as the premier episode of the "Game of Thrones" Season 5 nears. Fans can still hope that that Jon Snow is not the son of Eddard Stark but the son of Lyanna Stark and Rhaegar Targaryen.

"The Winds of Winter" won't be coming this year but "Game of Thrones" Season 5 will air on HBO this April 12. Stay tuned for more updates on these stories!