Winds of Winter theory: Sansa could become queen of Westeros by marrying a character the show cut

The Winds of Winter still has no release date. As of June 21, 2026, readers had been waiting 5,458 days since A Dance with Dragons, longer than it took Martin to publish the first five books, per IBTimes. Martin has reportedly written around 1,100 pages, and his publisher has dismissed rumors of a surprise release.

That's left plenty of time for theories. One of the more fun ones, laid out by Inverse's Alex Welch, skips the Queen in the North ending HBO gave Sansa in 2019. In the books, the theory goes, she ends up queen of the Seven Kingdoms, and the man who gets her there never made it to television.

What the books have already planned for Sansa

On the page, Sansa is still hiding in the Vale as Alayne Stone, Littlefinger's supposed bastard daughter, and Littlefinger has a marriage plan for her, per A Wiki of Ice and Fire:

• The groom: Harrold Hardyng, "Harry the Heir," next in line to rule the Vale if young Robert Arryn dies without children.
• The deal: Lady Anya Waynwood, Harry's guardian, agrees to the betrothal in exchange for Littlefinger forgiving the Waynwood debts, as long as Harry consents.
• The endgame: Once Harry becomes Lord of the Eyrie, Littlefinger plans to reveal that "Alayne" is Sansa Stark and use the Vale's armies to retake Winterfell.

Martin's Winds sample chapter "Alayne" introduces Harry properly, and he does not make a great first impression. He insults her for being a bastard, Lothor Brune promptly renames him "Harry the Arse," and by the feast he's apologizing, dancing with her and chatting openly about his own bastards, a daughter and a second child on the way. HBO left Harry out entirely.

The theory: Sansa and Aegon

Welch's theory swaps Harry for a much bigger prize: Aegon Targaryen, the young man who first appears in A Dance with Dragons as "Young Griff." He claims to be the son of Rhaegar Targaryen and Elia Martell, smuggled out of King's Landing as a baby when Varys swapped him for a tanner's son, and raised in exile by Rhaegar's old friend Jon Connington. The small council in King's Landing calls him a pretender. The show skipped him completely.

The case for the match, as Inverse lays it out:

• The crown: If Aegon takes the Iron Throne, his wife is queen of the Seven Kingdoms, which would make Sansa Cersei's successor.
• The politics: Readers expect Aegon to marry Arianne Martell, but Sansa could bring him more political power than Arianne can.
• The rhyme: Rhaegar set the whole saga in motion by leaving a Martell wife for a Stark girl. His supposed son passing over a Martell bride for Sansa would be very on brand for this family.
• The fix: It would give Sansa a book ending far from the Ramsay Bolton plot the show handed her in season 5, which fans still haven't forgiven.

None of it is on the page yet. It's a theory built mostly on rhymes, and this is a series that loves a rhyme.

Littlefinger is busy arranging Sansa's marriage to the heir of the Vale. The theory says she could marry up a lot further.

Why it might not happen

Plenty stands in the way. Welch himself notes that the more widely expected path sends Sansa north to reclaim Winterfell alongside Jon, which the books support more directly. Then there's the question of who Aegon really is. Even inside the story, Ser Kevan Lannister wonders whether Rhaegar's son could have survived at all, and fans have spent years arguing that "Young Griff" isn't who he says he is.

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There's also the scheduling problem. Sansa is in the Vale, betrothed to Harry the Arse, the books haven't put her in a room with Aegon once, and Martin has two books left to do it.

"I could finish The Winds of Winter pretty soon."

— George R.R. Martin, to The Hollywood Reporter, via IBTimes

He said it in 2026. Fans have heard it before.

Previously we wrote: Netflix's new Darcy, Jack Lowden, has to beat Colin Firth's lake and Matthew Macfadyen's hand