The ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners are officially on deck to write and direct the first ‘Star Wars’ movie after the end of the current trilogy…
‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are moving from Westeros to a galaxy far, far away.
On Tuesday, Disney CEO Bob Iger confirmed that Benioff and Weiss would be leading the next ‘Star Wars’ feature film due out in 2022 after a hiatus following the release of ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’, which lands in theaters in December.
That film will bring to a conclusion the ‘Skywalker Saga’ that started with George Lucas’ epic original ‘Star Wars: A New Hope’ back in 1977. Nine movies including the prequels directed by Lucas and the current slate of films that started with ‘Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ all led to this final film in the saga that J.J. Abrams directed.
Once that film lands in theaters, the Skywalker saga is effectively done and the ‘Star Wars’ universe will move into a new direction with different stories with the first movie planned coming from the ‘Game of Thrones’ showrunners, who just wrapped up eight seasons leading HBO’s blockbuster fantasy series.
Disney has also slowed down the release of future ‘Star Wars’ movies that will now land in theaters ever two years rather than a new project being released each and every calendar year. The logic behind that change largely happened after ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ was met with some critical pushback and then a few months later ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ landed in theaters with mediocre returns at the box office.
Following that series of events, Disney opted to push back the future ‘Star Wars’ projects that had included a feature film based on the bounty hunter Boba Fett that has now been shelved indefinitely.
As for Benioff and Weiss, they are expected to lead a new ‘Star Wars’ trilogy that will be separate from the original films that will come to a close with ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’. There is also a separate series of films being developed by Rian Johnson, who directed the much maligned ‘Star Wars: The Last Jedi’ but there’s no word when those movies will see the light of day.
In addition to the film projects in the works, there will be several ‘Star Wars’ television series coming to the new Disney+ streaming service including Jon Favreau’s ‘The Mandalorian’, which will debut in November. A second series is already in the works that will serve as a prequel of sorts to ‘Rogue One: A Star Wars Story’ that is expected to be released before the Benioff and Weiss ‘Star Wars’ films begin in 2022.
