Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss have announced they are dropping out of Disney Lucasfilm’s upcoming Star Wars trilogy, citing a Netflix commitment which has left them not enough time to do both.

Benioff and Weiss’ deal with Disney Lucasfilm was highly publicised when announced in February 2018. Under the agreement the pair would write and produce the new films to sit outside of the franchise’s main film storyline, which finishes this December with The Rise of Skywalker.

But earlier this year, as Game of Thrones was airing its final episodes to lukewarm reviews, Deadline learned the pair were being courted by six studios. In August, they chose one, agreeing to leave HBO to write, produce and direct for Netflix, in what is estimated to be a US$200m deal.

Benioff and Weiss cited this deal when they announced their decision to pull out of Star Wars.

“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,” they said in a statement to Deadline on Tuesday. “So we are regretfully stepping away.”

“We love Star Wars. When George Lucas built it, he built us too. Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything.”

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said: “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.”

There was no further comment on what will be happening with this trilogy, but Star Wars fans won’t be left wanting: a seperate trilogy from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson is still somewhere on the Lucasfilm schedule, with a series of other franchise releases in the works, including a separate movie from Kevin Feige, the Disney+ live action series The Mandalorian, and Ewan McGregor returning to his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a forthcoming series for Disney+.







