Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff have opened up about their exit from the Star Wars franchise.

Lucasfilm announced in 2018 that the showrunners would write and produce a new Star Wars trilogy, however, they walked away from the project the following year after signing a film and TV deal with Netflix.

During a joint appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Weiss revealed that they had made good progress on the first film.

“We got relatively far, story-wise, with the first one – and, like, had a basic road map for the other two – and, yeah, it was a shame,” he explained. “The truth is that our Hollywood batting average on things conceived – two things actually finished – has never been tremendously high, and there’s always going to be ones that get away for various reasons. You know, the ones that just aren’t meant to be.”

He continued, “It was sad that that was one of them for us. But… as time goes on, you kind of need to let go of those things, because if you don’t, you’ll drive yourself completely crazy.”

At the time of their exit, Weiss and Benioff explained in a statement that they “could not do justice to both Star Wars and our Netflix projects” so they decided to focus on their Netflix programmes, such as 3 Body Problem.

However, Benioff hinted at creative differences earlier this year when he told The Hollywood Reporter that they wanted to make films about the origins of the Jedi Order but Lucasfilm bosses “decided they didn’t want to do that”.

During the podcast, they were asked how they felt about director James Mangold making a Star Wars movie with a similar origins concept.

“I love Jim (Mangold). He’s a great dude,” Weiss replied. “All the best of luck to him.”

© Cover Media