Game Of Thrones Creators Discuss Their Failed Star Wars Movie And What Went Wrong

Before Netflix gave Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss $200 million, the pair were working on a Star Wars movie with Lucasfilm. They haven't said much about the failed project over the years, but they're now speaking about it and have revealed what went wrong.

Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, Benioff said he and Weiss wanted to make "The First Jedi," which would be a story about how and why the Jedi Order came to be. The movie was also going to go into detail on the first lightsaber.

"And we were annoyed as hell when Rian Johnson called his movie The Last Jedi," Weiss said. "He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on."

Johnson is a longtime friend of Weiss and Benioff, and he's also a producer on their new Netflix series, 3 Body Problem.

Regarding what went wrong with The First Jedi, Benioff said Lucasfilm did not react positively to the "very specific story idea" that he and Weiss had in mind.

"Ultimately they decided they didn't want to do that," he said. "And we totally get it. It's their company and their IP, but we weren't the droids they were looking for."

Lucasfilm is, however, pressing ahead with a Jedi "origins" movie called Dawn of the Jedi from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny director James Mangold.

Also in the piece, Benioff and Weiss discussed another failed project, the HBO series Confederate. This was going to be an alternate history drama where the South seceded from the Union with slavery remaining legal. Weiss said Confederate marked a "low point" for him and Benioff. "You try things that feel like they are worth doing and some of them work out, and some don't," he said.

Weiss and Benioff are now making the TV show 3 Body Problem with co-creator Alexander Woo. The first trailer debuted at CES this week and can be seen above.