David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, the duo who in 2011 launched the HBO sensation known as Game of Thrones, have walked away from their much-publicized deal with Disney’s Lucasfilm to launch a Star Wars film trilogy in 2022.
Benioff and Weiss were supposed to usher in the post-Skywalkera era of the Star Wars brand with a 2022 new-start story that would stake out a new frontier for the era-defining cinema brand created by George Lucas. The Emmy-winning pair cited their historic deal with Netflix. They said their enthusiasm for Star Wars remains boundless but, regrettably, their schedule is full up.
“We love Star Wars,” the pair said in a statement to Deadline. “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 GOT pair said in a statement to Deadline. “So we are regretfully stepping away.”
Kennedy didn’t close shut any doors in her send-off statement on Monday: “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.”
