Game Of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss have revealed that their cancelled Star Wars film was an origin story called The First Jedi.
In 2018, when the clamour surrounding Game Of Thrones was still near its peak, showrunners David Benioff and DB Weiss were revealed to have struck a deal with Lucasfilm to make a Star Wars movie – the first in a potential trilogy. The plan was that they’d embark on their space-fantasy after the eighth and final season of Game Of Thrones aired the following year.
Needless to say, Benioff and Weiss’ Star Wars film didn’t happen. Years later, though, the usually media-shy creative duo have talked to The Hollywood Reporter about the concept they pitched to Lucasfilm – it would, in essence, have been yet another prequel, but one that would have taken us back thousands of years in Star Wars lore to the birth of the Jedi Order itself.
The film would, logically enough, have been called The First Jedi.
“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…”
As for why Lucasfilm turned their pitch down, Benioff said that Lucasfilm “ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story.”
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“We had a very specific story idea in mind,” he said, “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 2019, reports told a somewhat different story – that in the wake of Solo: A Star Wars Story’s muted release, and the bracing fan reaction to Game Of Thrones’ finale, the pair backed out due to what The Hollywood Reporter said was “toxic fandom.”
A source told the outlet, “Who wants to go through that again? Not them. This was in the Life’s Too Short category.”
There were also rumblings that Lucasfilm was displeased with Benioff and Weiss’ recently-signed $200m deal with Netflix.
None of this is brought up in the new interview, though there’s plenty of talk about the pair’s major new project with Netflix – the epic (and very expensive-sounding) sci-fi series, 3 Body Problem. That’s out in March.
As for Star Wars and Jedi Order origins, Lucasfilm hasn’t nixed that concept entirely. Announced in 2023, James Mangold’s upcoming Star Wars film is itself set thousands of years before the events of A New Hope, and is said to be about – and entitled – the Dawn of the Jedi, though that name hasn’t yet been confirmed by Disney.
Elsewhere in the Star Wars universe, there’s been the announcement of another new film in the franchise – The Mandalorian And Grogu, directed by Jon Favreau, is due to start production this year.
More as we get it.
