Game of Thrones creators abandon their planned Star Wars trilogy after creative disagreements

By George Biggs
David Benioff & D.B. Weiss, the creators of Game of Thrones, left their planned Star Wars trilogy after creative differences between themselves and Lucasfilm.
Back in February 2018, it was announced the pair would undertake a Star Wars film series unrelated to the Skywalker saga. They would join the likes of Rian Johnson, who is also developing a Star Wars trilogy himself (Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy even said that they’d collaborate with him directly, and together they’d plan Star Wars films for the next decade). But it was not meant to be.
In a statement, 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.”
David and Dan corroborated Kennedy’s reason for them leaving, stating that they couldn’t devote an adequate amount of time to the Star Wars franchise, as producing films and TV shows for Netflix is their priority.
However, since then reports have circulated that cite creative differences could’ve been the reason for the split. This would not be surprising, given Lucasfilm’s recent history of severing ties with directors that stray from Lucasfilm’s guidelines. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were replaced with Ron Howard on Solo: A Star Wars Story; though Gareth Edwards maintains the director’s credit for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, extensive reshoots were done without him and he only had partial control of the final cut; Josh Trank’s Fant4stic film flop meant he was dropped from a Boba Fett movie that was in the works.
This shows just how particular Lucasfilm are in selecting directors, and how they struggle to give directors much creative freedom. Perhaps Kennedy should be more accommodating or be better at gaging what kind of films her directors want to make before they begin making them. A positive takeaway from this is that Kathleen Kennedy simply won’t settle. She’s dedicated to producing high quality Star Wars content, and won’t accept directors who have other commitments.