David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the writers who created HBO’s Game of Thrones, have exited their Star Wars project, according to Deadline. The move is a setback to Disney’s plans for the franchise, which had already announced that their films would hit theaters in 2022.
Disney announced that the pair would be working on a new Star Wars project that would succeed the currently-running Skywalker Saga, which is set to wrap up this December with Rise of Skywalker. At the time, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy praised their work on Game of Thrones, saying that “their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting.”
Following their work on Game of Thrones, a number of major studios courted the pair with some high-profile deals. In August, the two ultimately signed an overall deal worth “as much as $300 million” for the next five years with Netflix, but indicated that they plans to also complete a couple of other projects.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter, Benioff and Weiss indicated that they couldn’t do both: “There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away.”
In the meantime, Lucasfilm has a number of other projects in the works. The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is currently developing a film trilogy, Marvel’s Kevin Feige is working on a film, as well as a handful of TV shows for Disney+, including on about Cassian Andor (about to go into production), and Obi-Wan Kenobi — not to mention The Mandalorian, set to come out next month. Johnson’s film trilogy wasn’t on Disney’s long-term film schedule, and it’s not clear how that schedule will change with the departure of Benioff and Weiss, whose films were slated for 2022, 2024, and 2026.
Despite the news, it looks as though Lucasfilm will welcome back the pair. In a statement of her own, Kennedy noted that she hoped that Benioff and Weiss would return at some point down the road. “We hope to include them in the journey forward when they are able to step away from their busy schedule to focus on Star Wars.”
I see this as an absolute win
Given all the jaw-droppingly insulting & terrible things they said about GoT production at Austin Film fest, I think a great many Star Wars fans are cheering right now.
Thank goodness!
As a practically life-long Star Wars fan, this is one of the best pieces of Star Wars news I’ve heard in a long time. (And I’m perfectly happy with all the new Star Wars media I’ve seen, so that’s not intended as any sort of Parthian shot directed at the sequel trilogy and related works.)
They admitted they had no experience with tv and had no idea what they were doing with GoT.
https://io9.gizmodo.com/the-creators-behind-game-of-thrones-apparently-had-no-i-1839416149
That it was as good as it was for several seasons is remarkable. I didn’t hate the last season, but it was weak with some really dumb stuff. So this is good news.
Yeah, I’m not crying over it.
The timing of this after they revealed that the emperor was butt-naked at the Austin Film Festival is hilarious…..
—Keith R.A. DeCandido
I mean, I feel like they deserve at least SOME credit; GoT wasn’t exactly a flop. Of course, how much is due to them (or in spite of them) may be up for debate, and of course the last seasons were really rushed (although I will say that there have been a lot of good articles on Tor pointing out some of the flaws in their storytelling choices even in the ‘good’ seasons, especially as regards to women/POC, so…I may be too charitable here, lol).
But man, it just goes to show that fandom nowadays can be pretty capricious :)
ETA: I just read that article. OMG. Perhaps I WAS being too charitable, lol.
@@@@@ Lisamarie, yeah, I’m pretty sure anything good/great about GoT was despite them. They seem like my old manager – was total crap at his job, but surrounded himself with talented people who cared about their work and always did their best to deliver quality product no matter what the situation, so he always came off as being a great manager to anyone looking in from the outside…
I figured this was going to happen. Much like when Colin Treverrow was attached to Episode 9 right after Jurassic World but left after he released The Book of Henry, Lucasfilm announced these guys were the next people to take the trilogy right when interest in final season of Game of Thrones was sky-high, but before anyone had seen the episodes.
Their Netflix deal was a pretty sure indicator that it serves as a golden parachute for them to leave with their heads still held high.
I’m guessing unless Knives Out creates a huge stink, Rian Johnson is back in the driver’s seat. Unless this is the first step for clearing the decks for an expanded Kevin Feige role.
Being numbered among TLJ haters (or disliker, at least), leaving the bulk of the legacy up to Rian Johnson is the downside of this news for me. At the same time I’m concurring with not being too sad after those Austin comments. Not exactly a pair of genius visionaries we’ve lost, sounds like. You can survive muddling through GoT and call yourselves lucky, but mess up Star Wars and you won’t live that one down; good idea to cut and run. I admire the frankness though, enough to wish them more luck on their Netflix project(s). If Netflix doesn’t drop them now, lol.
@ALL agreed!
treebee72@8
I’d say that your old manager surrounding himself with “talented people who cared about their work and always did their best to deliver quality product” means that he wasn’t total crap at ALL areas of his job, even though he was terrible at much of his job. Recognizing talent is usually one of a manager’s responsibilities.
I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I got a ‘well, actually’ in a GoT thread…