David Benioff and Dan Weiss Reveal Their Shelved Star Wars Idea: ‘The First Jedi’

So, what was and ‘ shelved movie all about? The creators opened up about their efforts to make a movie in this week’s about their upcoming Netflix sci fi epic , which they created along with writer producer Alexander Woo. The producers also discuss the , their short lived idea, their producer’s bizarre inspired murder, and the many challenges that came from making their hugely ambitious new show.

On the front, the duo confirm media reports from 2019 that they were looking at the early days of the Jedi, but added some details. “We wanted to do ,” Benioff says. “Basically, how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber …” “And we were annoyed as hell when [Rian Johnson, the duo’s longtime friend and producer] called his movie ” Weiss says dryly.

“He completely destroyed the obvious title for what we were working on.” Asked what went wrong, Benioff says, “[Lucasfilm] ended up not wanting to do a First Jedi story. We had a very specific story idea in mind, and ultimately they decided they didn’t want to do that. And we totally get it.

It’s their company and their IP, but we weren’t the droids they were looking for.” The duo were far from the only ones that had their movie taken away. Lucasfilm also decided against making projects from top creatives like Kevin Feige, Patty Jenkins and Damon Lindelof. Yet Benioff and Weiss’ overall concept still might happen — last year, Lucasfilm announced a movie titled from director James Mangold.

Read for the rest of the story about Benioff and Weiss’ dramatic post journey. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day More from The Hollywood Reporter.