Earlier this year, the news came out that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will write and produce a new series of Star Wars films, and while the underwhelming commercial performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story has seemingly prompted Lucasfilm to put some of its projects on ice, it looks like this particular venture is still a go.
Entertainment Weekly has reported that the writing pair’s contributions to the ever-expanding space saga will be their very next gig after wrapping up the eighth and final season of Thrones. As it stands, very little is known about this project, but Benioff and Weiss probably like it that way, seeing how they’ve admitted to learning some secrecy tips from Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson:
“They’ve given us a lot of hints about how to lock things down, things we never would have thought of or didn’t know were possible.”
We may not know what to expect from this series, but Solo and Game of Thrones star Emilia Clarke predicted earlier this year that Benioff and Weiss could bring the franchise to trippy new heights:
“What they brought to fantasy as a genre that people are like, appreciating on a much grander scale, putting all of that creativity and all of that skill and intellect into something that already has so much, I think it’s just gonna be like Star Wars on acid. I think it’ll be amazing. I can’t wait.”
While Benioff and Weiss have their Star Wars series in place, some fans remain a little more doubtful about whether Rian Johnson’s trilogy will still be moving forward. Granted, the filmmaker himself has dismissed such chatter, but the rumors have persisted, and given Lucasfilm’s recent habit of cancelling planned projects, perhaps we can’t completely ignore such speculation quite yet.
As it stands, the future for this franchise beyond next year still feels pretty mysterious, but in meantime, this current trilogy is in need of some finishing, with Star Wars: Episode IX hitting theaters on December 20th, 2019.