In a recent interview Benioff and Weiss detail their cancelled Star Wars trilogy, plus some Barside Buzz that there’s still no script for the Rey sequel. We’ll start with the news first as Game of Thrones showrunners Benioff and Weiss have been talking to THR. The pair were at one point announced as writing and producing a Star Wars trilogy. This was a reason many fans felt Benioff and Weiss chose to rush the ending of Game of Thrones. HBO, nor creator GRRM agreed with their decision to end it on Season 8.
However, that Star Wars trilogy ended up cancelled and for the first time the pair have detailed what their pitch was about.
“We wanted to do The First Jedi,” Benioff says. “Basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber …”
“And we were annoyed as hell when [Rian Johnson, the duo’s longtime friend and 3BP producer] called his movie The Last Jedi,” Weiss says dryly. “He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on.”
Asked what went wrong, Benioff says, “[Lucasfilm] ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story. We had a very specific story idea in mind, and ultimately they 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.” (Their overall concept still might happen — last year, Lucasfilm announced a movie titled Dawn of the Jedi from director James Mangold.)
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That’s the real kicker here I think. Lucasfilm went and commissioned a very similar project from James Mangold that he is currently writing. So I guess all we can assume is that Lucasfilm liked the idea of exploring the Dawn of the Jedi era. However, they didn’t like the way Benioff and Weiss had proposed they do it. Which, by the way shows once again that Lucasfilm were far too quick to announce a project they still had doubts over. Or, was this really just about how poorly received Game of Thrones Season 8 was?
Note, despite what is said by THR above there is no evidence Mangold’s movie is titled Dawn of the Jedi. That was the name given to that era only officially.
New Jedi Order Barside Buzz
As said in the tile a rumor for you today also from the Gffa. According to MSW Steven Knight has yet to submit his script for the Rey sequel movie set in the New Jedi Order era.
MSW says according to his sources that Knight has yet to write the script. Now that does not mean he’s not working on it, but it seems clear it hasn’t been submitted. Given that the writers strike happened just after it was announced Knight was working on it, most assumed that was the cause of any delays. However we also heard a rumor that Knight had two versions of the script, the only difference being whether John Boyega agreed to return, or whether his art is played by a new character. MSW even suggests it’s possible Knight may not end up writing the movie.
I do believe that this situation is tied to the recent out the blue announcement of The Mandalorian and Grogu. A movie which will presumably replace and retool what was The Mandalorian Season 4. Bear in mind Lucasfilm had hoped to shoot the Rey movie this year. Therefore if they still don’t have a script, that could be a major reason that they made the call to switch Mando into a movie. It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off for them?
What do you think as Benioff and Weiss detail their cancelled Star Wars trilogy? What about the Barside Buzz that there’s still no script yet for the Rey sequel? Thought below as always.