David Benioff and DB Weiss, the Emmy award-winning writing duo and Game Of Thrones showrunners, have parted ways with Lucasfilm on a project that would have seen the pair kick-off a brand-new, post-Skywalker saga Star Wars trilogy.
The first movie in Benioff and Weiss’ new trilogy was being developed for release in 2022, which would have made it the first big-screen Star Wars project to follow this year’s main-strand closer, The Rise Of Skywalker.
But, as Deadline reports, the two have had to walk away from the galaxy far, far away in order to focus on their commitment to Netflix – having signed a nine-figure deal with the streaming giant earlier this year to write, produce and direct original TV shows and movies.
“We love Star Wars,” Benioff and Weiss said in a statement. “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.”
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy called the GOT double-act “incredible storytellers” and apparently left the door open for them to return to the Star Wars universe at some point, responding: “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.”
Still, she has plenty of other projects to focus on at the moment. The imminent arrival of Disney’s own streaming service, Disney+, brings with it the premiere of Jon Favreau’s Star Wars series The Mandalorian (in the US at least; UK viewers will reportedly have to wait until early 2020), while shows focused on Rogue One‘s Cassian Andor (played by Diego Luna) and Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi are both currently in development.
On the big screen, The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson and Marvel chief Kevin Feige are both working on separate Star Wars movie projects, but there are no concrete details on those as of yet. In the meantime, Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – the final chapter in the nine-episode Skywalker saga – hits cinemas on 19 December 2019.
