In early 2018 Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss signed on with Lucasfilm. The duo behind HBO’s global phenomenon were going to make a series of Star Wars films. More than a year later they were still on track to shoot in the galaxy far, far away. But that was a long time ago. The studio eventually scrapped every film it had been developing, including the mystery project from Benioff and Weiss. Now we finally know what story they wanted to tell. It’s one Lucasfilm is still planning to bring to the screen. The pair revealed they wanted to tell a story about “The First Jedi,” a concept that sounds a lot like James Mangold’s upcoming Star Wars movie.
Benioff and Weiss have now returned to television with Netflix’s 3 Body Problem, another big budget show. Just like with George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire, it’s also an adaptation of another complicated book series. It’s based on Chinese author Liu Cixin’s Remembrance of Earth’s Past trilogy.
Ahead of the show’s release they sat down with The Hollywood Reporter‘s James Hibberd to discuss their journey from the fantasy realm of Westeros to a complex sci-fi world. Along the way they made a stop in another galaxy to discuss the idea behind their unmade Star Wars project.
“We wanted to do The First Jedi,” Benioff told THR. “Basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber…” The two also joked around about how mad they were when Rian Johnson ruined their “obvious title” by naming his film The Last Jedi.
In a more recent interview, Benioff and Weiss also shared how far into the development process their Star Wars movies were when they were canceled. Weiss revealed on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, “I think we got relatively far, storywise, with the first one. We like had a basic roadmap to the other two, and it was a shame.”
So, what happened to the project? Benioff said it was simple: they “had a very specific story idea in mind” and Lucasfilm decided not to make it. That’s a tale as old as time in Hollywood, but in 2023 Lucasfilm announced James Mangold will direct a featured film called Dawn of the Jedi. It will explore the exact same concept and ancient time period Benioff and Weiss hoped to cover.
That doesn’t mean Mangold’s film will be similar to the one the Game of Thrones creators had planned. All it means is their general idea was one Lucasfilm liked. Whether that’s any consolation, or a point of aggravation, to them probably doesn’t matter. Right now all the two likely care about, though, is whether or not people like the sci-fi story they did get to tell with 3 Body Problem.
Originally published on January 10, 2024.