What do you call the person who graduates last in their class at medical school?
“Doctor.”
Many fans weren’t thrilled with the final two seasons of Game of Thrones, as it felt like the series fundamentally changed, and not for the better. One thing that didn’t change though was its status as the most popular show on the planet. No matter how angry or disappointed viewers might have been with the state of the Realm by the end, they only cared because David Benioff and D.B. Weiss had produced something so good during its first six seasons. Plus, they made HBO a whole lot of money. That kind of success is why a bidding war for their services has been waging ever since they said goodbye to Westeros. Now House Benioff and House Weiss have found a new land to call home: they have signed an exclusive deal with Netflix.
Deadline reports that after HBO, Comcast, and Apple bowed out earlier in the process, Netflix bested the other two finalists—Amazon and Disney—for the pair’s services. As part of their reported nine-figure global deal (which The Hollywood Reporter says is a whopping $200 million), the duo will write, produce, and direct new shows and movies for the streaming site. However, this does not affect their upcoming Star Wars trilogy, which they are still doing with Lucasfilm, or some of their other projects that were already in the works.
In the most obvious of obvious statements, every studio, network, and streaming site is looking for the “next” Game of Thrones, but that’s a nearly impossible task for anyone, even the guys who made Game of Thrones. And with the way things ended in the Seven Kingdoms, it might seem surprising that anyone would trust Benioff and Weiss to try and replicate their success again, especially at such a high price.
But just like the doctor who finished last in their class at med school, you know what you call the people who created the most popular show on the planet? “Employed.”
And also “rich.”
Images: CBS
