Caast your mind back 13 years, to the first episodes of an HBO series called Game of Thrones. While the books the series was built on had a cult following, no one could have anticipated the fervour that would envelope the world, and the huge success its stars (some of which have crossed into the GFFA including Emilia Clarke) and creators would enjoy. The world-building that George R.R. Martin had laid out in A Song of Ice and Fire was intricate, but that didn’t mean the TV version would necessarily translate into such a watcheable, gripping series, but the duo behind that adaptation – David Benioff and D. B. Weiss – did it to such great effect, thoughts of a jump to the galaxy far, far away were unsurprisingly not too far behind. However, history shows that leap didn’t quite stick the landing, and ahead of their latest Netflix series 3 Body Problem, Benioff and Weiss briefly touched on the Star Wars idea they had, and why it didn’t happen.
Next was their Star Wars movie. Fans were excited by the idea of the Thrones guys bringing their grounded-fantasy dramatics to a galaxy far, far away. Yet the movie was shelved along with Star Wars projects from other top creatives (like Kevin Feige, Patty Jenkins and Damon Lindelof).
“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.)
With the previous announcements regarding the Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy film set 15 years after The Rise of Skywalker, the James Mangold Dawn of the Jedi project and the Mandoverse film directed by Dave Filoni now joined on the big screen by The Mandalorian & Grogu as well as a second season for Ahsoka, a fourth for The Mandalorian, the third and final season of The Bad Batch, debut seasons of The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew and the second season of Andor the galaxy far, far away has never been busier.
- Hardcover Book
- Barnes, Steven (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 416 Pages - 10/15/2024 (Publication Date) - Random House Worlds (Publisher)
