Game of ThronescreatorsDavid BenioffandDan Weisshave revealed what theirStar Warsfilm would’ve been about had the project not been shelved by Lucasfilm. During a chat withThe Hollywood Reporterpromoting their new Netflix project3 Body Problem, the duo revealed that theirStar Warsmovie would’ve beenThe First Jediand, as Benioff puts it, would’ve been about, “Basically, how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber…” However, Weiss playfully expresses frustration when their friend Rian Johnson, director ofThe Last Jedi, “destroyed” their title.
“And we were annoyed as hell when [Rian Johnson, the duo’s longtime friend and 3 Body Problem [producer] called his movie The Last Jedi. He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on.”
In 2018, Disney announced that Benioff and Weiss would write and produce a new series ofStar Warsfilms after the conclusion ofGame of Thronesin 2019. By August, the duo negotiated an exclusive multi-year film and television deal with Netflix that was reportedly worth $200 million. Per their commitments to Netflix,the pair exited their contractto produce theirStar Warsfilm, but Benioff provides more details as to what went wrong with the project they were pitching:
“[Lucasfilm] ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story. We had a very specific story idea in mind, and they ultimately 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.”
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Star Wars projects have frequently been announced and later canceled
Lucasfilm announcing and thencancelingStar Warsprojectsis no big surprise.Wonder Womandirector Patty Jenkins was announced to be helming a one-off adventureStar Warsfilm in 2020 calledRogue Squadron, which was set to be the next movie on their docket. However, in 2022, Disney pulled the film from its scheduled Dec. 2023 release date and later revealed that it was no longer in active development at the studio.
Marvel boss Kevin Feige was also expected to helm aStar Warsproject that was announced in 2019. Fans even began to speculate that this was a subtle move to put him in line to replace Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, but that proved not to be the case. Feige’sStar Warsproject was still alive in 2022 when screenwriter Michael Waldron, who pennedDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madnessand is doing the same for what may still beAvengers: The Kang Dynasty, was said to be working on Feige’s Jedi adventure. After Waldron was hired to take on more Marvel projects, theStar Warsnews subsided, and it was eventually announced thathis project wasn’t moving forward either.
Even though theirStar Warsproject never came to be, their sci-fi epic3 Body Problemlooks to be one of the riskiest endeavors yet for Benioff and Weiss. The series is an adaptation of Liu Cixin’sRemembrance of Earth’s Pastbook trilogy, which details humanity’s efforts to survive an impending invasion from alien forces that are fleeing from a dying planet. The book trilogy became very popular in China in 2008 and was ultimately translated and released in the United States to even more fanfare.
3 Body Problempremieres March 21st on Netflix, and you can check out the trailer below.
