Star Wars Deserves Better Than Game Of Thrones Showrunners Benioff and Weiss
For eight years, Game of Thrones has decimated the competition when it comes to the audience size. The HBO series, based on the novels by George R.R. Martin, is ubiquitous. Even if you don’t watch the show, you know what it is. Few pieces of entertainment media rise to such lofty heights. Star Wars is one such entertainment peer. So, when it was announced today that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have signed on to write and produce a new Star Wars franchise, it should be a genre match made in heaven.
Then why am I, the middle of the Venn Diagram target demographic for this announcement, not feeling it? Probably because it’s about the safest, most milquetoast decision Lucasfilm could make right now.
First and foremost, I love Game of Thrones. I love Star Wars. If you’ve followed my career at all, you know I’m more versed in the history of those two fictional worlds than most people are with our own. With Game of Thrones in particular, I’ve obsessively followed the show since its inception. After nearly a decade watching Benioff and Weiss adapt Martin’s epic saga for the small screen, one thing has become clear: these men have no idea how to portray the inner lives of women. Especially when they don’t have the framework of Martin’s novels to support them.
From the sexposition of early seasons using womens’ bodies to help world-building go down smoother to mishandling sexual assault at every given turn (remember how Dany’s wedding night and Cersei’s once-consensual but creepy reunion with Jaime were both converted into rape scenes while Sansa’s show-only rape focused on the pain it cause Theon?), nothing about the Game of Thrones showrunners engenders confidence that they understand how half the population functions. On top of that, the huge build-up to Jon Snow and Dany consummating their relationship was written with all the flourish of a scientific paper on human mating rituals instead of the steamy romance it could’ve been.
Then there’s the lack of PoC (People of Color) in HBO’s Game of Thrones world. While the books go out of their way to add non-white characters as the saga progresses, many of those characters have been whitewashed or removed entirely from the TV adaptation. Benioff and Weiss also landed in hot water last year when HBO announced their next project — Confederate. The show will follow an alternate reality where the United States is embroiled in a modern day Civil War. The twist? In this world, the South “won” its independence back in the 1800s and slavery continued unabated. The backlash was immediate and fierce. Of course, one must wonder if this ill-advised series is still in production now that Benioff and Weiss are jumping ship to Star Wars.
So nowLucasfilm is adding Benioff and Weiss their roster, one already rife with white men. Despite Kathleen Kennedy’s continued empty promises to the contrary, a galaxy far, far away is still incredibly white and male both in front of the camera and behind. While the franchise has increased the visibility of people of color on-screen with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and The Last Jedi, there is still a long way to go to reach parity. One Rose Tico and or Finn for every five brunette female protagonists is robbing Peter to pay Paul. Things are even more dire behind-the-scenes as not a single woman has written or directed an entry…ever. Nor has a PoC. Giving Benioff and Weiss their own Star Wars saga, on top of the franchise previously promised to Rian Johnson, doesn’t leave a lot of room in the next decade for women and minorities to shine.
A lot has been made about how Star Wars needs to move beyond the Skywalker family story in order to survive. But paying lip service to a diverse galaxy loses any resonance when the narrative is still firmly in the hands of men for the foreseeable future.