How can one of the biggest franchises in the history of film also be on the brink of disaster? This isn’t some riddle that is supposed to lead to a fancy, clever answer. Nope, this is an honest question about the future of “Star Wars.” Despite having some of the biggest films of all time and ruling the merchandise market for decades, Lucasfilm finds itself picking up the pieces, yet again, thanks to the departure of David Benioff and DB Weiss.
According to new reports from THR and Variety, we now know a bit more about the reasons why the “Game of Thrones” duo left their high-profile “Star Wars” trilogy. And sorry fans, this has nothing to do with Kathleen Kennedy coming to her senses and firing the guys after some regrettable comments made at the recent Austin Film Festival. But the reports do claim that Kennedy was partly responsible.
Variety has the clearest recap of what happened, with the Benioff and Weiss issues stemming back to the summer, when the duo began working on their ideas for the trilogy of “Star Wars” films. When they were signed, they were reportedly given creative freedom to take the franchise in a new direction, and the duo settled on the idea that they wanted to talk about the birth of the Jedi.
However, when ideas started to receive pushback from Kennedy and the folks at Lucasfilm, the report claims that the relationship between the writers and the studio began to sour. Combine this with the recently signed deal with Netflix, where Benioff and Weiss are exclusively working on a slate of films and TV projects, and apparently the duo just decided to cut their losses and move on. A source for THR called the departure a “hard quit,” signalling that Kennedy didn’t intend on the guys to leave “Star Wars.”
Variety’s report does claim that when issues began to arise, Kennedy began hearing pitches from other writers about “Star Wars” projects, but who or what those entailed is still a mystery.
The big issue now, it appears, is what happens next?
You see, Benioff and Weiss were supposed to be the guys who brought a new trilogy of films to the big screen beginning in 2022. Now, with those films effectively dead, that leaves a massive hole in the “Star Wars” slate that doesn’t have an easy fix. Kevin Feige’s film is still in early development and not likely ready to get going anytime soon. Lord knows whether or not Rian Johnson even wants to keep working on his films that he signed for. So, without a clear direction, the “Star Wars” franchise finds itself in a situation that it hasn’t faced since pre-Disney.
If Lucasfilm wants a “Star Wars” film to hit in 2022, expect to hear news on where the studio plans on going sooner rather than later. Otherwise, it may be a bit longer than 2022 before we see the galaxy far, far away on the big screen.
