Game of Thrones Creators to Write, Produce New Star Wars Film Series
Photo by Kevin Winter/GettyTo quote the astonishing announcement made by Lucasfilm this afternoon, Game of Thrones creators “David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are going from Winterfell to a galaxy far, far away.”
The Emmy-winning duo will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films, separate from both the episodic Skywalker saga, which will conclude with December 2019’s Episode IX, and the recently announced trilogy from The Last Jedi writer-director Rian Johnson.
“David and Dan are some of the best storytellers working today,” said Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy in a statement. “Their command of complex characters, depth of story and richness of mythology will break new ground and boldly push Star Wars in ways I find incredibly exciting.”
“In the summer of 1977 we traveled to a galaxy far, far away, and we’ve been dreaming of it ever since,” said Benioff and Weiss in a joint statement. “We are honored by the opportunity, a little terrified by the responsibility, and so excited to get started as soon as the final season of Game of Thrones is complete.”
These new Star Wars films have no release dates yet, nor any sort of plot information. It’s also not clear how many there will be—Lucasfilm’s announcement does not specify that it’s a trilogy, but it’s hard to imagine Star Wars films coming in any other amount.
It’s also unclear what this means for Confederate, the sci-fi series Benioff and Weiss are developing at HBO. The series, set in an alternate world in which the South successfully seceded and slavery remains legal, caused a great deal of controversy upon its announcement last summer, for reasons that should be fairly evident judging by the beginning of this sentence. When asked by Variety on Tuesday, HBO declined to comment on Confederate’s future.
Game of Thrones will return in 2019. Star Maisie Williams recently revealed that the show’s eighth and final season will air that April.