David Benioff and D.B. Weiss step away from ‘Star Wars’ trilogy

By Peter Sblendorio / New York Daily News

The co-creators of the “Game of Thrones” series will not be traveling to a galaxy far, far away.

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss are parting ways with an upcoming “Star Wars” film trilogy scheduled to begin in 2022 that they were slated to lead, the duo announced Monday night in a statement to Deadline.

“We love ‘Star Wars.’ When George Lucas built it, he built us, too,” Benioff and Weiss said. “Getting to talk about ‘Star Wars’ with him and the current ‘Star Wars’ team was the thrill of a lifetime, and we will always be indebted to the saga that changed everything.”

They continued: “There are only so many hours in the day, and we felt we could not do justice to both ‘Star Wars’ and our Netflix projects. So we are regretfully stepping away.”

The 2022 film is set to kick off a new era in the “Star Wars” universe, as the upcoming “The Rise of Skywalker,” out Dec. 20, will be the ninth and final installment to the Skywalker saga.

“David Benioff and Dan Weiss are incredible storytellers,” Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said in a statement to Deadline. “We hope to include them in the journey forward when they are able to step away from their busy schedule to focus on ‘Star Wars.’”

Disney announced in May that three new “Star Wars” movies are on the way, with an installment hitting theaters around Christmas every two years beginning in 2022.

Benioff and Weiss’ overall deal with “Star Wars” was revealed in 2018, and they were attached to the 2022 film earlier this year.

In addition to being co-creators on the wildly popular HBO show “Game of Thrones,” Benioff and Weiss wrote episodes for that series and served as its showrunners. The eighth and final season wrapped up in May to reviews that didn’t measure up to the critical acclaim of earlier seasons.

In August, the Hollywood Reporter revealed Benioff, 49 and Weiss, 48, had inked a five-year, $250 million deal with Netflix.