David Benioff and D.B. Weiss still seem pretty upset about their Star Wars exit

By the time they reached the eighth and final season, David Benioff and D.B. Weiss seemed, well, more than a little burnt out on their landmark HBO show, Game Of Thrones. (R.I.P. Starbucks cup… you’ll always be in our hearts.) But while they clearly took the ensuing criticism to heart (and seem to have learned from a good deal of it in their latest show, 3 Body Problem), they never even got to start their planned Star Wars trilogy, which was canceled by Lucasfilm in 2019.

In a recent appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, this exit seemed to plague the showrunners far more than any of their previous controversies. After a lively conversation, things got pretty uncomfy the minute host Josh Horowitz even brought it up. “It was a shame. As time goes on, you just kind of need to let go of those things because if you don’t, you’ll drive yourself completely crazy,” Weiss answered in a tone that suggested he really hadn’t let got of it and was driving himself completely crazy.

This was after Weiss suggested that the duo had gotten “relatively far story-wise” on the first film, and had a “basic road map” for the other two. While they didn’t get into it here, Benioff previously revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that they were planning a film called The First Jedi, which was “basically how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, the first lightsaber, [etc].” but the studio “ultimately they decided they didn’t want to do that.”

The thing is, it seems like they actually kind of did… just not with this particular team. Last April, Lucasfilm announced that director James Mangold was working on a film called Dawn Of The Jedi, which—wouldn’t you know it—explored how the Jedi Order came to be, why it came to be, etc. “I love Jim. He’s a great dude, so… all the best of luck to him,” Weiss said on the podcast, again in a tone that sounded more like a passed over employee congratulating their nemesis on a promotion than anything else.

In contrast, the writers seem to have developed a healthy sense of humor around briefly becoming the most hated creatives in America after the Game Of Thrones finale. “I think we knew it would be controversial, but I think we hoped that it would be a little more 50/50,” said Benioff, laughing. “The only positive moment I’ve ever had with homeland security was going through LAX a few months ago, and the guy saw my driver’s license and [asked if he was David Benioff] and was like, ‘I love the final season, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.’ So, there are people out there!”