10 Failed Star Wars Movies (And Why They Didn't Happen)
2. David Benioff And D.B. Weiss' Trilogy
The Movie
The pop-culture dominance and awards success of Game of Thrones catapulted David Benioff and D.B. Weiss - the show's creators and lead writers - to the top of every movie studio's wishlist, and in 2018, it was Disney that managed to snag them.
In February of that year, news broke that the duo had signed on to write and produce a series of Star Wars films (later revealed to be a trilogy), that was intended to be separate from the Rian Johnson trilogy.
Little is known about what they would've done with the Star Wars IP (though, at the time of the announcement, Bob Iger did note that their movies would focus on "a particular point in time in the Star Wars franchise") but it's possible that those political machinations, mature themes, and other elements of Game of Thrones' DNA would've formed part of their vision.
Why It Didn't Happen
In October 2019, Benioff and Weiss exited their Star Wars deal. A few months prior, they'd signed another major content deal over at Netflix, and this was cited as their reason for walking far, far away from the Star Wars galaxy:
"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. So we are regretfully stepping away."
There was also speculation that the backlash against the final season of Game of Thrones had created a rift between Benioff, Weiss, and Disney, similar to how the failure of The Book of Henry - and again, this is all speculation - might've given the Mouse House cold feet about working with Colin Trevorrow.
That said, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy didn't completely shut the door on working with Benioff and Weiss in the future, stating that, "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.”