Game of Thrones showrunners reveal the story behind their scrapped Star Wars movie: “We weren’t the droids they were looking for”

The planned trilogy was canceled in 2019

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Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss have revealed the plot of their scrapped Star Wars movie – and we’re already missing what could have been.

“We wanted to do The First Jedi,” Benioff toldThe Hollywood Reporter. “Basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber. [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.”

The movie was first announced back in 2018, with Lucasfilm president Kathleen calling the duo “some of the best storytellers working today.” The planned film series was to be separate from Rian Johnson’s The Last Jedi series and the Skywalker saga.

The duo announced their exit from the trilogy in 2019, stating that they were stepping away because they couldn’t juggle both Star Wars and their Netflix projects.

“We were annoyed as hell when [Rian Johnson, the duo’s longtime friend and 3B producer] called his movieThe Last Jedi,” Weiss told The Hollywood Reporter. “He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on.”

Of course, the duo aren’t the only ones with a canceled Star Wars movie.Kevin Feige’s take on the franchise was ultimately scrapped, although Kathleen Kennedy says it was never greenlit in the first place. Patty Jenkins' Star Wars: Rogue Squadron was taken off the official Lucasfilm schedule,with Variety reporting that it was shelved indefinitely.

Benioff and Weiss are set to debut their new sci-fi series 3 Body Problem on March 21 exclusively on Netflix. For more, check out our list of the bestnew TV showscoming your way in 2024 and beyond, or, check out our list of all the upcomingStar Wars movies and showsyou should know about.

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Lauren Milici is a Senior Entertainment Writer for GamesRadar+ currently based in the Midwest. She previously reported on breaking news for The Independent’s Indy100 and created TV and film listicles for Ranker. Her work has been published in Fandom, Nerdist, Paste Magazine, Vulture, PopSugar, Fangoria, and more.

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