“Game of Thrones” showrunners, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss might have walked away from their deal with Disney’s Lucasfilm. The duo was to launch a feature film trilogy in 2022.
“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,” the pair told Deadline. “So we are regretfully stepping away.”
According to Deadline, they would no longer be associated with the Lucasfilm project due to their $200 million deal with Netflix. The trilogy would have been the first after this year’s ‘Rise of Skywalker’ and the pair were scheduled to produce it in 2022.
“We love Star Wars,” Benioff and Weiss said in a statement 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.”
HBO’s “Confederate” has also reportedly been shelved because of Benioff and Weiss’ Netflix contract.
Lucasfilm has quite a few Star Wars projects in the pipeline. These include “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ on Nov 12, “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker” releasing Dec 20 and two spin-off series featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi and Cassian Andor respectively.
The Benioff and Weiss announcement will not weight down on Lucasfilms too heavily as “The Last Jedi” director Rian Johnson is slated to write a feature trilogy for them and Marvel’s juggernaut Kevin Feige will also be joining the franchise to develop a movie.
“David Benioff and Dan Weiss are incredible storytellers,” Kathleen Kennedy, the head of Lucasfilm, said in a statement to Deadline. “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.”
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