Former ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss will no longer make a planned ‘Star Wars’ trilogy following the events of ‘The Rise of Skywalker’…
The ‘Star Wars’ universe will carry on past ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ but former ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss will no longer be the ones developing the planned trilogy.
On Tuesday, Benioff and Weiss announced that they would no longer be developing a trio of ‘Star Wars’ films that were supposed to start with a new movie released in 2022. The plan was for the former ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners to develop a ‘Star Wars’ story that would create a new legacy following the end of the Skywalker saga that comes to a conclusion with ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ this December.
According to Benioff and Weiss, their busy schedule at Netflix — where they inked a massive overall deal following the end of ‘Game of Thrones’ — was just too much to handle along with developing a new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy.
“We love Star Wars,” Benioff and Weiss said in a statement released to Deadline. “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.”
While there was real excitement surrounding the news that Benioff and Weiss would be developing a new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy when the deal was first announced, some opinions had gone lukewarm after the final season of ‘Game of Thrones’ faced a lot of criticism. Still, the hugely popular fantasy series from HBO took home a slew of Emmy Awards including the top prize for ‘Best Drama Series’ back in September.
There is always a possibility that Benioff and Weiss could return to the ‘Star Wars’ family in the future but for now they seem focused on developing new series and films for Netflix after signing a nine-figure deal to exclusively join the streaming service.
As for what comes next for ‘Star Wars’ — a new series called ‘The Mandalorian’ is set to launch with Disney+ on Nov. 12 with all eyes also on December’s release of ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’. Following that film, there is an Obi-Wan Kenobi series in the works for Disney+ starring Ewan McGregor with ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ director Rian Johnson also developing his own trilogy of films as well.
Perhaps the most anticipated film will come from Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige, who is crossing over to help develop a new ‘Star Wars’ movie in addition to his responsibilities with the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
