David Benioff and Daniel Brett (D.B.) Weiss are opening up about their shelved Star Wars movie.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, Benioff and Weiss shared some new details about the Star Wars movie they were once tapped by Lucasfilm to make. Benioff confirmed that the movie was going to be titled The First Jedi and would’ve looked into how the Jedi Order was established.
“We wanted to do The First Jedi,” Benioff said. “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] called his movie The Last Jedi,” Weiss joked. “He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on.”
What happened with Benioff and Weiss’ Star Wars movie?
When asked why the project never came to fruition, Benioff said, “[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.”
In February 2018, Disney announced Benioff and Weiss, who launched HBO’s Game of Thrones together, would helm a series of new Star Wars movies. The two filmmakers walked away from the deal in October 2019 after signing an exclusive multi-year film deal with Netflix.
Benioff and Weiss told Deadline about their exit from Lucasfilm at the time, “We love Star Wars. When George Lucas built it, he built us too. Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything.”
Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy also kept the door open for Benioff and Weiss to someday return to Star Wars, should they choose to do so. She 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.”
