Posted in: Movies, Star Wars, TV | Tagged: 3 Body Problem, Dan Weiss, david benioff, game of thrones, star wars

David Benioff And Dan Weiss On Their Canceled Star Wars Film

Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have released that their canceled Star Wars project was about the origin of the Jedi.

In the years that have followed the sequel trilogy of Star Wars films, there have been a bunch of false starts. The only franchise with more announced and then canceled projects is the previous era of the DC Universe, but Disney Lucasfilm isn't exactly lacking in canceled Star Wars projects. At the moment, there are five in development that we know about: the three that were announced at Star Wars Celebration London last year, Taika Waititi's film, and Jon Favreau's film, which was announced yesterday. One of the first big projects that was canceled happened all the way back in October 2019.

The year at the box office was insane, and Lucasfilm was getting ready to close the door on the sequel trilogy; HBO had just wrapped up Game of Thrones. The fantasy series, once the biggest thing ever and critically acclaimed, ended with a whimper, with many calling it one of the worst endings ever. All of that flack came down on showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss. In early 2018, Lucasfilm announced that Benioff and Weiss would be developing a Star Wars film, and people were excited. However, not long after Game of Thrones ended, it was announced that Lucasfilm, Benioff, and Weiss would be parting ways. We haven't heard much about this project since, but with 3 Body Problem releasing on Netflix soon, they are making the press rounds, and The Hollywood Reporter asked the two about the project and what it was about.

"We wanted to do The First Jedi," Benioff says. "Basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber …"

"And we were annoyed as hell when [Rian Johnson, the duo's longtime friend and 3BP producer] called his movie The Last Jedi," Weiss says dryly. "He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on."

Is it just a coincidence that Benioff and Weiss walked away from Star Wars mere months after a massive backlash following the ending of the series that launched their careers into the stratosphere? It could be, but no one will say one way or another. The Lucasfilm of 2019 and the Lucasfilm of today are two very different animals, which we need to consider. When asked why he thought the project didn't work out, Benioff said, "[Lucasfilm] ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story. 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."

If you're a little confused because James Mangold is doing an early Jedi movie that was just announced last year, as we said, the Lucasfilm of 2019 and the Lucasfilm of today are very different. Star Wars has been absent from the big screen since late 2019, and no one thought that would happen, and certainly, no one could have predicted the pandemic and the reliance on streaming content. Sometimes, things don't work, which sounds like the case here. Benioff and Weiss's new series, 3 Body Problem, will premiere on Netflix on March 21st.

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