Game of Thrones Finale Reportedly to Blame for Benioff and Weiss’ Star Wars Exit

The Star Wars fandom was left dazed and confused this week, when it was announced that Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had dropped out of the Star Wars franchise, abandoning their plans for a new trilogy. In the statement given by Benioff and Weiss, they cited the fact that, “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.” However, some new reporting now contradicts that statement, claiming that the divisive Game of Thrones finale was actually responsible for killing Benioff and Weiss’ Star Wars project.

Check out the report now coming from Vanity Fair reporter Joanna Robinson’s The Storm podcast:

“On a Patreon-only episode of The Storm podcast (formerly Storm of Spoilers) Joanna Robinson (primary GoT reporter for Vanity Fair, also covers Star Wars and Marvel) reported that the decision to remove B and W was made in May, before the Netflix deal. She says (according to Disney sources) that it was a “soft” removal and was not announced in order to allow B and W to shop their services elsewhere. She suggested that B and W’s comments about GoT last weekend at an event in Austin may have sped up the announcement… she said the decision was made after the final episode of GoT, after Iger had made his announcement about the next film.” – Reddit user paxtoncrwford

UPDATE: Joanna Robinson has now pulled down that episode of The Storm podcast, claiming her statements were not meant to be reported as fact:

So far this is the only reporting we’ve heard regarding any connection between the backlash over Game of Thrones‘ final season and Beinoff and Weiss leaving Star Wars, so of course it must be taken with a large grain of salt. That said, if there is any truth to this, then the knee-jerk reaction may be that Lucasfilm booted Benioff and Weiss due to the lackluster result of their final Game of Thrones run. However, it could be just as true that Benioff and Weiss were unwilling to jump back into such a big franchise, with an even more… impassioned fanbase than Game of Thrones.

In fact, comments by Benioff and Wiess at a now-infamous Austin Film Festival over the weekend lends credit to that latter idea. The pair stoked controversy by admitting to not knowing much about Game of Thrones, its world and characters, or even how to make a TV show, even after the series premiered. It was basically an admittance to being in way over their heads with the series, and the resulting backlash and bewilderment about those admissions allegedly may have pushed Lucasfilm to reveal the split, which again, may have really occurred back when GoT was ending.

In any event, a lot of Star Wars fans seem okay with Weiss and Benioff leaving the franchise – and even more so after their GoT comments left a lot of diehard fans feeling disillusioned and/or disappointed with the pair. But if a Knight of the Old Republic movie was truly on their plate, hopefully we still get that.

The Mandalorian premieres on Disney+ on November 12th. Star Wars: The Riske of Skywalker hits theaters on December 20th.