While the future of Star Wars post The Rise of Skywalker seems bright in the TV world with The Mandalorian and Ewan McGregor’s Kenobi series coming to Disney+. However, the future on film is uncertain with Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have left their proposed trilogy.
Deadline (via Empire) broke the story in the early hours of this morning (UK time) with a statement released by Benioff and Weiss stating their massive Netflix deal is the main reason to walk away from Star Wars.
“There are only so many hours in the day, we felt we could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects, so we are regretfully stepping away,” the pair said.
Meanwhile, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy responded with her statement saying: “David Benioff and Dan Weiss are incredible storytellers. 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.”
It is crazy to think that Netflix is having more control then an iconic like Star Wars but if the streaming service has paid a nine-figure deal for your services then that should be the duos main focus. However, it will be added pressure as their first Netflix project will be seen as the thing that stopped them from going to a galaxy far, far away.
The first of the trilogy was set to release on December 2022 and it’ll be interesting if another filmmaker/writer takes over or as Kennedy’s statement isn’t a closed door is put on hold.
Elsewhere, I believe this won’t be the last we hear about a proposed trilogy collapses as I’m coming to think Last Jedi director Rian Johnson’s trilogy won’t happen because why stress about Star Wars and the backlash his film got, when your newest film Knives Out is seen as an Oscar contender and clearly had a ball creating this world and I think audiences (once they see it) will love to see more.
Making the future very shaky for the franchise with the likelihood Kevin Feige’s reported project will be fast-tracked and take that December 2022 release date.
We won’t hear about Johnson’s future or the franchise future until The Rise of Skywalker is released and likely out of cinemas.
It is worrying how many directors have left their project so this should be something Kennedy looks at for the betterment of the franchise.
The Bear Cave 