George R.R. Martin, whom fans were pleasantly surprised to see in the Dark Winds Season 3 premiere, is actually more involved in the Western drama than you may imagine. The season, which adapts two Tony Hillerman novels, Dance Hall of the Dead (1973) and The Sinister Pig (2003), saw Martin portray a prisoner in the Navajo police station. He appeared alongside the legendary Robert Redford in a 30-second cameo, which was also Redford’s final onscreen performance. Months following the intense Season 3 finale, the epic fantasy author is now opening up about his involvement in bringing Dark Winds to life on screens.

Speaking about his upcoming projects at an NYCC panel moderated by horror author Joe Hill (Stephen King’s son), Martin revealed how he was able to lend Redford a helping hand for Dark Winds. This became possible only after Hillerman regained the rights to his works, as his agent (whom he eventually fired) had sold film and TV rights to a studio that had prevented him from writing a fifth Joe Leaphorn book. “Tony was pretty pissed off to discover that they were not just going to make movies of existing books.” Martin shared. “But they thought they [owned] the character now — and they did own the character.”

Before Dark Winds became an AMC series, Redford, who later acquired the rights to the Joe Leaphorn books, produced a feature film, which didn’t turn out the way he had hoped. He then sold three more of the books to PBS, which were adapted into TV movies that turned out better. However, as Martin divulged, “that deal went away,” but led to him being contacted by Redford’s team and Chris Eyre around 2005. “They invited me to lunch, and when the Sundance Kid invites you to lunch, you go to lunch,” Martin said, adding that they approached him to help sell the project to HBO since he already had an overall deal with the network and a connection to Hillerman.

George R.R. Martin Helped Pitch ‘Dark Winds’ to HBO

George RR Martin in close up in Dark Winds Season 3 Episode 1
Robert Redford in prison talking to someone in Dark Winds
Zahn McClarnon sits thinking at a kitchen table in Dark Winds
Jessica Matten is standing outside a cop car in Dark Winds. 
Sheriff Gordo (A Martinez) stands beside Jim Chee (Kiowa Gordon) in the station on 'Dark Winds.'

From there, Martin, Redford, and Eyre “interviewed a lot of potential screenwriters,” putting together a package for the show, which was pitched to HBO, who bought it. The group continued working on the project, including filming, but “HBO did not pick it up to series,” much to Martin’s disappointment. “They thought it was too similar to True Detective,” the award-winning novelist admitted. Afterward, they got the rights back and turned to the Sundance Network, as Martin stated:

“We thought they might like it, and they did, so that’s how it wound up on AMC. It’s a great show, and I’m glad I could do my little bit of opening doors, being part of it, and reviewing some of the scripts and all that.”

All three seasons of Dark Winds are streaming on AMC+. Stick with Collider for the latest film and TV news.