Where are the Game of Thrones showrunners now? What David Benioff and D. B. Weiss are upto these days

If you watched Game of Thrones series finale as it aired, you can’t forget how angry and disappointed everyone was at the creators and showrunners, and executive producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. They went from the height of being worshipped by Game of Thrones fans to wanting them never to come close to anything related to the show or its sequels ever again.

While they brought a great series to life, we wish they had done a better service to ending one of the best shows of the decade. Here is what the duo has been up to since Daenerys burnt King’s Landing.

The lore lives on: When is The Winds of Winter coming out?

How they landed Game of Thrones

Credit: Jeff Kravitz/Getty Images

David Friedman Benioff and Daniel Brett Weiss met at the Trinity College of Dublin in 1995. While they worked on several books and screenplays individually, they also collaborated after they met again in Santa Monica, in 1998. Their co-written script, Headmaster, was never made.

Fast forward to 2006, they approached the author of A Song of Ice and Fire, the book series that Game of Thrones is based on. Benioff admitted, “We had never done TV, and we didn’t have any [experience]. We don’t know why he trusted us with his life’s work.”

The duo recalled that during said meeting, the author George R.R. Martin asked them the one question every fan has wondered. “He asked us, “Who is Jon Snow’s mother?” We had discussed it before, and we gave a shocking answer. At that point, George didn’t actually say whether or not we were right or wrong, but his smile was his tell. We knew we had passed the Wonka test, at that point.”

And so, they began a journey that would last more than a decade.

Parting ways with HBO

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss announced in 2017 that after Game of Thrones ended, they would be producing another series for HBO titled Confederate. They said, “We have discussed Confederate for years, originally as a concept for a feature film, but our experience on Thrones has convinced us that no one provides a bigger, better storytelling canvas than HBO.”

The series was met with vitriol, as many people did not want to see the main characters praised and romanticized while they all engaged in slavery. As of 2020, the series was canceled. They also will not be a part of House of the Dragon or any other spin-offs.

Weiss recently told Entertainment Weekly that they will never partake in any of the Game of Thrones’ sequels. “All in, we were 11 years, probably, doing that show, When I say 11 years, it was full on, all in, all day, every day for 11 years. It was the best decade of our lives. “He says, “It still kind of feels a bit like a dream, but we got to a place where it was pretty clear to us that we had reached the end of what made sense for us to be involved with in that world that we lived. It just felt like, for us, it was time to move on and get excited and terrified about building something else — building lots of something elses.”

Fallout with Disney and Star Wars

In 2018, Disney announced that Benioff and Weiss would soon write and produce a new Star Wars trilogy. They would only begin working on this after Game of Thrones ended. Many fans think the pair intentionally shortened the number of seasons and episodes for the show because they wanted to move on to the Star Wars project.

they really did rush the last season of Game of Thrones even when they were offered more episodes and money to finish it so they could hurry up and work on Star Wars, only to get fired from working on Star Wars for being just really bad at their jobs… so delicious, so good

— wizard stories (@northgalis) October 29, 2019

HBO and the author had initially wanted the show to run for a minimum of 10 seasons. But Benioff and Weiss convinced them against it. Seasons 7 and 8 of the show were also supposed to be at least ten episodes long, but we know how that turned out. But after they signed a deal with Netflix, Disney was said to be displeased that the duo entered into an exclusive contract with their rival.

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said: “David Benioff and Dan Weiss are incredible storytellers. 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.”

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The 200 million dollar deal with Netflix

By August of 2019, they announced an exclusive multi-year film and television deal with Netflix. Benioff and Weiss cited this as their reason for departing from the Disney deal, “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 from Star Wars.”

They have already begun working on their first Netflix series, The Three-Body Problem, based on a science fiction novel of the same name by Liu Cixin. The show was slated for a 2023 release and has already released a trailer. The official Netflix synopsis reads:

“A young woman’s fateful decision in 1960s China reverberates across space and time to a group of brilliant scientists in the present day. As the laws of nature unravel before their eyes, five former colleagues reunite to confront the greatest threat in humanity’s history.”

This millennium-spanning book series has similar attention to detail as A Song of Ice and Fire series, making it right up the pair’s alley. And as a plus point, the book series has already concluded; the writers have no reason to make up a completely different ending.

A few of their early works that we recommend

David Benioff has written multiple books and screenplays for movies. We recommend his first novel, The 25th Hour, and its movie. He drafted a screenplay for the mythological epic starring Brad Pitt, Troy (2004), which made almost 500 million dollars at the box office. He also co-wrote X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009).

Unfortunately, most of Daniel Brett Weiss’ scripts and screenplays were never realized. But before Game of Thrones, he did release his first book called Lucky Wander Boy. One reader writes, “This novel is Catcher in the Rye for the Mario generation.” The official website of the book describes it as

“A novel of video game addiction, Hollywood serfdom, ill-fated romance and extremely misguided notions about Japan, Lucky Wander Boy marks the debut of an original new voice that will captivate wanderers of every description.”

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