George R.R. Martin Played Himself As a Zombie in Z Nation

Among longtime Game of Thrones fans, it’s probably a joke of patient resignation, at this point, that author and creator George R.R. Martin might never completely finish the remaining fantasy books — the books that were promised! — in his enormously successful A Song of Ice and Fire series. 

Martin himself has blogged at length about all the reasons why it’s taking him so long to complete The Winds of Winter, the next book in the series. But what if there’s a simpler (and definitely funnier) explanation than simple writer’s block? What if, in some parallel campy horror-verse, he were just too catatonically zombified to ever write anything again?

The Z Nation cameo where George R.R. Martin played his own zombie doppelgänger

Martin’s writing skills definitely fell off big time in his one-off cameo appearance on SYFY’s Z Nation, the goofy, sometimes-creepy post-apocalyptic horror-comedy series that ran for five seasons from 2014 to 2018. Not one to be accused of being a poor sport with his super-famous image, Martin gamely showed up for a brief but hilarious star turn on the series, playing (what else?) a full-blown zombie version of himself — a version who would just as soon snack on a good book as read it.

The cameo came in “The Collector,” the Season 2, Episode 8 installment of Z Nation that paired uber-survivor Alvin Murphy (Keith Allan) with “The Collector” (Tom Beyer), an eccentric zombie apocalypse survivor with delusional fantasies of rounding up infected famous people (well, former people), sticking them inside his own personal “museum” populated by the celebrity undead, and then cashing in on their name-brand appeal. 

Imprisoned behind a book-stacked desk in one of The Collector’s museum rooms, a pale, zombified version of Martin — complete with his signature glasses and cap — mindlessly sits in an office chair, forced by The Collector to sign endless copies of his latest hot book (which is cheekily titled A Promise of Spring). 

When The Collector pops in to show Murphy his famous once-human hostage, he explains how Martin ended up in his custody in the first place: “I was at the last Comic-Con when it all went down,” he boasts. “…Some dirty guy with a crossbow tried to help George escape. Got eaten. I helped George and his girls escape — but they didn’t last long without room service!”

All the while, Martin’s zombie doppelgänger sits stupidly in his office chair, groaning and emoting with admirably authentic-looking undead energy. But zombie or not, old writers’ habits die hard: When The Collector tosses one of Martin’s books on the desk, zombie-Martin instinctively grabs it and starts signing it… never mind that he holds his pen with a claw grip and can’t write a sentence to save his already-expired life. 

“He has amazing muscle memory from all those years of signing books. It’s a reflex!” chirps The Collector, with just a little too much glee, teasing that he stands to “make tons of money when eBay comes back!” once the apocalypse is over and he can auction off his trove of genuine zombie-Martin imprints. 

Murphy, for his part, barely knows who Martin is (guess he wasn’t too much of a GoT fan!) — but that doesn’t stop The Collector from begging him to use his not-so-secret zombie mind-control trick to get the formerly-great author to push his latest unfinished 800-page masterpiece over the goal line: “Maybe you can do your mind thing, and help him finish his next manuscript!”

“Is it any good?” inquires a barely-interested Murphy — though The Collector isn’t exactly interested in quality. “I was thinking,” he answers, “about typing ‘The End’ on the last page. We’ll kill everyone in the next book!”

The silly scene ends after the fellas walk away (but not before Martin tries to take a big ol’ hungry bite from one of his own books — cover and all). As they saunter toward The Collector’s next zombified celebrity museum piece, though, Murphy has an overdue moment of inspiration, plucking a book from Martin’s endless A Promise of Spring stack and whacking The Collector smack in the face with it. Welp, no more listening to that crazy guy — problem solved! 

Z Nation isn’t the only time Martin has turned in a funny self-referencing cameo in a SYFY project. He also appeared in Sharknado 3: Oh Hell No (2015), losing his head in a gruesomely amusing scene that riffed on Ned Stark’s similar demise in Game of Thrones’ first season.

You can stream the full Sharknado series plus tons more awesome movies and shows in the SYFY app — click here to get started!