With ‘Game of Thrones’ Showrunners out, ‘Star Wars’ Should Stick to TV

Everybody loves stories, and who has a better story that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss? After basically stumbling into the job running the biggest show on the planet for HBO, Benioff and Weiss pivoted that fame into nabbing a plumb job writing and directing the next Star Wars trilogy after this December’s The Rise of Skywalker. They also closed an enormous, reportedly $300 million, five year deal with Netflix. Except as of last night, they’re off Star Wars, and frankly, I think this is a sign that the franchise should stick to television.

According to reporting by Deadline, the issue came down to scheduling, not “talent.” Benioff and Weiss’ Star Wars trilogy (details about which remain unknown, but presumably included a lot of sexposition) was scheduled to debut in 2022, and with the massive Netflix deal happening at the same time, it was one or the other.

“We love Star Wars,” the pair said in a statement to Deadline. “When George Lucas built it, he built us too. Getting to talk about Star Wars with him and the current Star Wars team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything.”

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy added that the duo were welcome back whenever their schedules clear up, which let’s be frank, is probably never. But with their exit, beyond any dunking about the team not being great at finishing things, it brings up an opportunity for the storied franchise to shift the focus from theatrical films, to the small screen.

To be clear, that avenue is relatively untested for the George Lucas created space operas, as well. There have been multiple, successful and critically acclaimed animated series set in the Star Wars universe, two Ewok focused TV movies that are probably terrible but I loved as a kid, and one holiday special that we do not talk about. Their big live-action bet, The Mandalorian, is the anchor show for the highly anticipated Disney+ streaming service, but won’t debut until November 12. And another long gestating project focusing on Ewan McGregor’s take on Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut at some point in the future, as well as series starring Diego Luna’s character from Rogue One.

But something about the movies, other than the main trilogy featuring Rey (Daisy Ridley), Poe (Oscar Isaac) and Finn (John Boyega) is just not working. A planned slate of Star Wars Story prequels and sequels debuted, with mixed results. Fans were split on the grim, serious Rogue One, which was plagued by behind the scenes drama and reportedly mostly reshot by director Tony Gilroy after Gareth Edwards didn’t deliver what Lucasfilm and Disney were looking for. The Han Solo focused Solo is more fun, but fans were underwhelmed and plans to trilogy-ize the movie were also dashed. Oh, and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired from that film, and replaced by Ron Howard, who reshot most of the movie.

That’s not even mentioning (which I am now mentioning, of course) Fantastic Four director Josh Trank, who was supposed to direct a Star Wars Story before dropping out/getting fired, and The Book of Henry auteur Colin Trevorrow, who dropped out of what would eventually become The Rise of Skywalker, replaced by The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams.

Look, there’s no doubt that Star Wars makes a ton of money. Even with the troll-annoying The Last Jedi, which fractured some of the less flexible fanbase, the franchise is still strong particularly when it comes to the merchandise (always Star Wars‘s ultimate raison d’être). But other than a potential movie created by Marvel Cinematic Universe mastermind Kevin Feige, and another planned trilogy from Last Jedi director Rian Johnson, there’s not much in the works for theaters. And if Benioff and Weiss were supposed to anchor the 2022 debuting Star Wars: Brienne Deserved Better, that means either Lucasfilm will have to scramble to push up one of the other in-development films, a strategy that — as mentioned above — has led to serious behind the scenes drama — or scrap plans entirely.

I’d err on the side of the latter. Though only a few journalists have seen footage of the Jon Favreau showrun The Mandalorian, the series looks great and has already secured a second season. McGregor has been working on Obi-Wan forever, and as our own Brett White noted, if there’s one thing all Star Wars fans can agree on it’s that this series is a good idea. What’s on the docket is already more promising than the question marks fans have been presented with on the theatrical side.

There’s also the question of storytelling, and while the Skywalker Saga (the movies that make up the 9 films we’ve seen so far) carries an enormous weight with it, there have been countless novels, comics, video games and more set in a galaxy far, far away that have nothing to do with Anakin, Luke, or Leia. Having smaller stories, even with a larger episode count, seems much more manageable that swinging for the fences with another Epic Movie Trilogy.

And on that note, TV (go with me here) has been proven to work as far as long-form storytelling goes. Other than the Marvel Cinematic Universe, proposing an enormous plan involving multiple movies and interlocking storytelling has fizzled — see Universal’s Dark Universe, Warner Bros. DC Extended Universe, and even the big plans for Star Wars. Could Feige bring some of that magic over? Certainly. But as is, Lucasfilm has shown it can execute long-form storytelling on multiple fronts, except for in theaters (and the Skywalker Saga).

Right now it seems like The Mandalorian will run, followed by Obi-Wan, then The Mandalorian Season 2, then Luna’s series. But while seeing a massive Star Wars movie in theaters once a year seems exhausting, watching a Star Wars TV show every week does not. Don’t blame me for this one; blame the human brain, which can easily binge 48 hours of a TV show in a weekend, but ask them to go to the movie theater for one measly film and all of a sudden they’re “too tired,” JEFF.

The other advantage of TV is that there is a wealth of talent to draw on, other voices and ideas that can be brought in to build multiple series at the same time. You might not have noticed this, but the directors of Star Wars movies so far have been exclusively white men. The Mandalorian has already expanded this roster in Season 1 with Rick Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow and Taika Waititi, and in Season 2 will be helmed by Carl Weathers, among others. That’s a good, positive step that can allow for stories set in the Star Wars universe that feel and act differently than they have before. It’s important on a sociological level, but also from the “health of the franchise” level. Like anything else, expanding your audience beyond a narrow, aging group of increasingly angry white men is just good business. And I say this as an aging white man, mind you.

Point being, with Benioff and Weiss gone for the time being working on — one assumes — an exit strategy from their Netflix deal so they can relax on a large pile of Game of Thrones Funko Pops for the rest of their lives, it’s time for Star Wars to squarely turn the focus on TV. Build up an empire there, and when, a decade from now, they surprise us with the shocking continuation of the Skywalker Saga on screen, the audience will be rested and ready to go. Just maybe don’t count of Benioff and Weiss to help bring it home.

Where to stream Game of Thrones

Where to stream The Mandalorian