David Benioff & D.B. Weiss may not write all three installments of their Star Wars movie trilogy. As Lucasfilm prepares for the galaxy far, far away's future after the premiere of The Rise of Skywalker later this year, one of the biggest projects they have on deck is a new film series overseen by the Game of Thrones showrunners. The project was formally announced in early 2018, just months after the studio revealed plans for a separate film trilogy from the mind of Rian Johnson.
The three creators are said to be working closely together as they map everything out, and fans are eager to see how Lucasfilm's upcoming slate shapes up. Disney has set aside release dates for Star Wars films in December 2022, 2024, and 2026, with the first Benioff & Weiss film believed to be the first one out of the gates. But there are still a lot of moving pieces on these movies, including who's going to be writing them.
In a THR report covering Benioff & Weiss' recent mega deal with Netflix, it's stated the pair is set to write the script for "at least one" of their Star Wars films. At the time of the initial announcement, it was said Benioff & Weiss would write and produce the series, so it sounds like things have changed behind-the-scenes.
It's important to mention Benioff & Weiss are working on a full treatment for their Star Wars series, so at least traces of their voices should be present in all three films. Perhaps they're coming up with an outline and will hand off screenplay duties to other writers while they handle other commitments, such as their Netflix obligations. It appears that Benioff & Weiss plan on staying involved for the duration of the Star Wars trilogy, so they'll still be serving as producers even if they aren't writing the whole thing. There's still no word on who will be directing these films, so that remains a fluid situation as well. Since the first of these movies isn't due for another three years, Lucasfilm has plenty of time to iron out the creative team before forging ahead.
This situation reads very similar to Johnson's trilogy. In that case, it's confirmed Johnson is writing and directing the first installment, but the other two remain up in the air (though Johnson plans on mapping out the entire story arc before production). Arguably, it would be for the best if all of these new Star Wars movies had different writers and directors behind them. That would be a way of keeping things fresh and injecting new perspectives into the long-running franchise, ideally preventing the films from getting stale. Johnson and Benioff & Weiss would of course act as overseers to make sure their respective projects get across the finish line, but it would be nice to see them bring in other collaborators to play in the expansive Star Wars sandbox.
Source: THR
