Game of Thrones showrunners were planning to make "The First Jedi" movie
David Benioff and Dan Weiss were hired to make a new Star Wars trilogy for Lucasfilm, but it didn't work out. "We had a very specific story idea in mind, and ultimately they decided they didn’t want to do that."
By Dan Selcke
After the end of Game of Thrones, showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss had a lot of projects lined up. At one point they were going to make a controversial alternate history show called Confederate for HBO. That didn't work out. Later, they were signed up to create a trilogy of new Star Wars films for Lucasfilm. That fell apart too.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Benioff and Weiss reflected on what happened there. “We wanted to do The First Jedi,” Benioff said. “Basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber …”
They came up with the idea before director Rian Johnson made his movie The Last Jedi, the second film in the Star Wars sequel trilogy. “And we were annoyed as hell when [Rian Johnson] called his movie The Last Jedi,” Weiss joked. “He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on.” Johnson is a producer on Benioff and Weiss' new show 3 Body Problem, for the record, so clearly there's no actual beef here.
So why didn't The First Jedi (or whatever they would have called it) end up happening? “[Lucasfilm] ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story," Benioff said. "We had a very specific story idea in mind, and ultimately they decided they didn’t want to do that. And we totally get it. It’s their company and their IP, but we weren’t the droids they were looking for.”
Why did Lucasfilm cancel a planned Star Wars trilogy from David Benioff and Dan Weiss?
At the time it was announced that Benioff and Weiss' Star Wars trilogy wasn't going to happen, some fans theorized that Disney shuttered the project due to fan disatisfaction with the final season of Game of Thrones. And maybe that played a part in it, but I encourage people to remember that Disney has announced and then dropped a lot of proposed Star Wars movies over the years, including:
- Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins was going to make a Rogue Squadron movie. That ended up getting shelved.
- Marvel boss Kevin Feige was going to make a Star Wars movie. That's gone.
- The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson was going to direct a Star Wars trilogy, but that'sbeen on hold for years.
- Damon Lindelof was going to make a Star Wars movie and was then asked to leave.
- Taika Waititi has been drafted to make a Star Wars movie but is unsure if it will ever get made.
Looking at all this, I tend to think that the cancelation of Benioff and Weiss' Star Wars trilogy had less to do with how fans felt about them after the end of Game of Thrones and more to do with Lucasfilm's inability to decide what kind of Star Wars movie they want to make. At minimum if they're not certain about these ideas, they should really stop announcing them so far in advance.
In any case, Benioff and Weiss moved on to Netflix and have a new sci-fi show, 3 Body Problem, coming out in March:
take the black. Take the Black: Let's dissect the trailer for 3 Body Problem. dark. Next
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