The final season of Games of Thrones is facing a huge backlash from the fans all over the world. The showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are accused by largely disappointed Thrones fandom, of both rushing the ending of their series and fumbling a major plot-turn centred on the show’s female lead, played by Emilia Clarke. Last Sunday’s episode 5 (“The Bells”) was the worst rated on Rotten Tomatoes; while critics and fans are in agreement over the unstable ending to the series, and it’s about much more that one character.
There’s even a Change.org petition, which has nearly reached its 500,000 signature goal, calling for a remake of the eighth season.
This is the reason why the final season of Game of Thrones is often being compared to the prequel series of Star Wars by George Lucas, both ruining two of the best franchises of all time.
The comparison took a wild turn last week as the two worlds met when Disney announced that the next Star Wars film following The Rise of Skywalker will be overseen by Game of Thrones creators D&D and is due in 2022.
Disney Chairman and CEO Bob Iger said in a statement:
“We did a deal with David Benioff and D.B Weiss, who are famous for Game Of Thrones, and the next movie that we release will be theirs, And we’re not saying anything more about that.”
While it’s clear that Benioff and Weiss have got one of the biggest prizes a fantasy sci-fi filmmaker can hope for – working with Disney and having the keys to a Star Wars movie, there are questions being asked whether the two deserve it.
In the initial few seasons of GoT, it was marked as a faithful adaptation of George R.R. Martin’s books. Even George himself was included in penning the episodes till season four. But the series went downhill from the point when the show went ahead of the books and went in its own creative path, with the final season really burning itself to the ground (just like the fate of King’s Landing in episode five).
Let’s have a look at their resume. Aside from Game of Thrones, Benioff’s only notable credits in the fantasy and sci-fi genre are for screenwriting efforts on execrable ventures such as Troy and X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Weiss has very little on his CV other than Thrones.
The rumour around Weiss and Benioff’s take on Star Wars is that they will be focusing on the Old Republic, an era of Jedis hundreds of years prior to the Skywalker saga. But whatever the subject Weiss and Benioff decide to tackle, they will do so under enormous scrutiny. There is even another Change.org petition started to remove them from any Star Wars film!
On the other hand, when a show wins the second-most Emmy awards (38 wins, 128 nominations, to be exact), it’s writers deserve to be on the top. So whether D&D will bring new life to Star Wars or ruin yet another franchise, only time will tell.
Till then, may the Force be with you!
The Film Reel 