Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss announced this week they would no longer be producing their own Star Wars trilogy for 2022 after signing a $250 million deal with Netflix in August.
In a statement released by Lucasfilm, the pair said they love Star Wars, but their schedules were simply too full.
“We love Star Wars,” they said. “When George Lucas built it, he built us too. Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything.”
“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 [from Star Wars].”
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy didn’t close the door on a possible collaboration in the future and added, “David Benioff and Dan Weiss are incredible storytellers. 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.”
Now, we’re finally learning what story the GoT showrunners wanted to explore in their trilogy, and it sounds like it could have been pretty cool.
While the Skywalker Saga is set to end with The Rise of Skywalker, Benioff and Weiss were reportedly interested in exploring the origins of the Jedi according to Variety.
The history of the Jedi has previously been touched on, but we have yet to see how they first formed and began dedicating their lives to protecting the galaxy.
The publication reports that the filmmakers and the Lucasfilm executives began to see their visions for the films diverge during meetings (as often happens with Star Was directors and writers) and when Benioff and Weiss signed the Netflix deal it seemed to signal they were keen to explore other opportunities.
When it was clear Lucasfilm and the creators weren’t thinking along the same lines, the studio reportedly began meeting with other writers.
The Hollywood Reporter notes the pair’s exit had been “brewing” since August and they were having doubts about jumping into the Star Wars franchise because of the “toxic fandom”.
They also report that Kennedy wasn’t happy with the Netflix deal because they were meant to be focusing on Star Wars and only Star Wars. She was apparently not convinced the pair, who is known for being able to focus on only one project at a time, would be able to work on the Star Wars trilogy as well as their Netflix projects.
Rian Johnson is also working on his own Star Wars trilogy and Marvel’s Kevin Feige is also slated to do one movie with Lucasfilm which could potentially serve as the first chapter in a longer story.
Who knows, maybe one of those stories will end up being about the origins of the Jedi?