Who Should Write the New Star Wars Trilogy (VIDEO SCRIPT)

Readers, a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, there was an HBO show called Game of Thrones.

/It was based off of the unfinished book series A Song of Ice And Fire written by George R. R. Martin, and showran by David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, who -- according to legends and interviews (mostly interviews)  -- was only able to acquire the rights from Martin for HBO because they were able to successfully answer his question regarding Jon Snow’s true lineage on some Riddle of the Sphinx ass-shit/

The success of Game of Thrones attracted the attention of the Disney acquired company Lucasfilm

Who at the time had just placed Jon Faverau -- actor, director of the Jungle Book and Lion King remakes for Disney, and one of the might-as-well-be founding fathers of Marvel Studios -- in charge of showrunning their first live-action Star Wars series that would become “The Mandalorian,”

And after finding his work incredibly to their liking on the installment, cemented a deal with Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson to write and direct a brand new trilogy of films unaffiliated with the Skywalker Saga THAT HE’S STILL MAKING.

So during the production of the final season of Game of Thrones back in February of 2018

/David and D.B. inked a deal with Lucasfilm for them to both write and produce a brand new trilogy for the franchise that would take place before Johnson’s own, with the first installment slated to be released in the year 2022./

Now by the time this news came around, a lot of people weren’t really happy with the way David and D.B. were handling things on Game of Thrones. Not only because they ran out of source material for the show, but because of a slew of other things as well.

So when news got around that they’d be writing and producing their own Star Wars trilogy, a lot of people -- me included -- weren’t really happy to hear it.

That’s when we fast-forward to August of 2019 after the final season of Game of Thrones aired

/And we find out that after a competitive battle between multiple companies, David and D.B. signed a multi film and tv deal with Netflix that’s worth 200 million dollars that would be the next thing they would focus on after their Star Wars trilogy./

You heard that right. They just signed a 200 million dollar deal with Netflix, and they were still going to work on a Star Wars Trilogy.

But all of that changed in October of 2019

/When according to Deadline, David and D.B. revealed that they were stepping away from working with LucasFilm and their Star Wars trilogy to focus on their deal with Netflix. We’ll come back to that later./

So while the December 2022 release date LucasFilm initially scheduled for David and D.B.’s first installment of their new trilogy can easily change and isn’t set in stone for the company, I would like to play a game.

A game where, for the sake of convenience, we pretend that this 2022 date IS set in stone, and that LucasFilm needs a replacement storyteller for this new trilogy that will come before Johnson’s own.

Who do I believe should take up the pen and write this new trilogy in their stead?

Not produce or direct -- Kathleen Kennedy has proven that those two can be easily remedied -- but WRITE?

Well, three immediately come to mind

One would be Rebecca Roanhorse.

/She’s a black/native american who wrote “Trail of Lightning,” the first installment of her Sixth World book series back in 2018 which was nominated for a 201 Nebula Award for Best Novel, with the second installment Storm of Locusts released April of 2019. She’s also written the book Race to the Sun, which is part of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson Deity universe imprint, and wrote the upcoming tie-in novel to Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars: Resistance Reborn, slated to be released November 5th so she’s already worked with LucasFilm in tandem. She has a bachelors in Religious Studies from Yale, a masters in Theology, and has won and been nominated for various Hugo, Nebula and Locus awards for her writing./

Another would be Ken Liu.

/He’s a Chinese-American author who has written multiple short stories, and the two-part fantasy epic “Dandelion Dynasty,” consisting of The Grace of Kings -- which won the 2016 Locus Award for Best First Novel -- and The Wall of Storms. Like Rebecca, Ken has also written for Star Wars, with his short story “The Sith of Datawork” part of the “A Certain Point of View” collection of short stories that was published in celebration of the 40th anniversary of “Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.” He has also won the 2013 Hugo Award for his short story Mono no Aware, and translated the Chinese novel “The Three-Body Problem” for English readers which was the first translated novel to win a Hugo Award for Best Novel./

MY personal favorite, however, is Nnedi Okorafor.

/She’s a Nigerian-American author of both child and adult sci-fi and fantasy, has a masters in Journalism from Michigan State University, and a masters in English from the University of Illinois, Chicago. She’s written for Marvel Comics multiple times, taking over writing duties from Ta-Nehesi Coates on Black Panther, writing for Wakanda Forever and most recently announced a Suri solo series with issue one currently available on print and digital. She’s currently co-writing the screenplay for the film adaptation of Octavia Butler’s Wild Seed starring Viola Davis for Amazon Prime, and her first adult novel “Who Fears Death,” which won the Carl Brandon Kindred Award "for an outstanding work of speculative fiction dealing with race and ethnicity" in 2010 and the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel in 2011, has been picked up by HBO to become a TV series with George R.R. Martin himself serving as executive producer./

Now you may be wondering to yourself, why all three names I placed into this hypothetical race are people of color.

Even moreso, why I decided to exclaim their credentials as I pleaded my case for each of them.

And that’s because each of these three individuals collectively have what David and D.B. lacked upon the greenlighting of Game of Thrones, and some could argue STILL lack: Experience.

You see on October 26, 2019, David and D.B. attended the Austin Film Festival as guests and participated in a Q&A panel regarding their time working on Game of Thrones, which was live-tweeted by user Needle & Pen.

It was through that Q&A that we learned a lot about how the two handled the show, but the main summary of the entire panel was one singular fact: They had no idea what the fuck they were doing.

The tweet that received the most attention was this one

/When D.B. stated that Game of Thrones to them was pretty much film school, and was their first time working with costume designers and a lot of other people and things that others who have done so would basically know how to properly approach and handle./

This was definitely seen in how bad the initial unaired pilot of Game of Thrones was, which has been confirmed YEARS before this Q&A session.

Yet instead of shelving it, at-the-time HBO CEO Richard Plepler and at-the-time HBO Programming Chief Michael Lombardo decided to give the two another go and greenlit the series

/Investing 20 million into the pilot before committing 50 million to the first season overall./

The same treatment however was NOT given to Jane Goldman -- who has been a producer and screenwriter since 2001, won a Hugo for her help in adapting Neil Gaiman’s Stardust to screen, and has co-written the screen adaptations of X-Men: First Class and Kick-Ass

/When HBO cancelled the first announced Game of Thrones spinoff series that would star Naomi Watts and multiple actors and actresses of color after viewing 2 different cuts of the pilot./

So why the favoritism? Why was the Game of Thrones prequel pilot by Jane Goldman -- who has almost 20 years worth of professional experience under her belt -- passed on by HBO, but the awful pilot of David and D.B. -- two individuals who recently admitted to having NO experience in running a show -- not only stay the showrunners of the series after their awful pilot, but given a 20 million dollar rehaul for it while they filmed the first season?

Some may say that part of it had something to do with the fact that D.B.’s father is actually the former head of Goldman Sachs and once ran the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Which would explain how two individuals who didn’t know anything about how to run a television series and used an overall $80 million investment as a hands-on way to learn how to run a television series. But that would just be slander.

It’s also a COMPLETE coincidence that David and D.B. decided to pull away from their Star Wars trilogy over at LucasFilm days after all of this information regarding their time on Game of Thrones became available to the public. No, they have to be REALLY gung-ho regarding their upcoming projects over on Netflix.

I am not crying over the loss of David and D.B.’s involvement in the Star Wars universe, because it was not deserved.

The way I see it, a slot that was previously and easily acquired by two individuals that have gotten where they were by none other than various assortments of privilege

And have allowed that privilege to make them believe that they’ve not only actually done something, but are now competent in the industry they were able to buy themselves in

Is now open for someone like Roanhorse, like Liu, and like Okorafor who is actually has the experience

Has the credentials and a dedication to the craft, industry and company

And someone who normally wouldn’t be given said opportunity despite said experience, credentials and dedication because of the various types of marginalization that currently exists.

With the exit of David and D.B. from Star Wars, Kathleen Kennedy once more has the opportunity to not only bring proper BALANCE to the Force, but also assure that it’s with ALL of us.

But, I digress, Readers; your homework assignment for the day

Write in the comment section below who YOU would want to see create a brand new Star Wars trilogy

And if you just so happen to be someone who got upset because I utilized the topic of this video to talk about the effects of over-privileged white dudes in modern day society taking up spaces for women and minorities who are just as capable of doing the job but aren’t given the opportunities to do so because of said statuses, then you are who I made this video for.

Also cry more, bitch.