A lot of people are still not over how ‘Game of Thrones’ ended. And like the Targaryens, they’re out for fire and blood.
Thousands of jilted GoT fans have signed a petition demanding that showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss be kept away from writing the upcoming “Star Wars” films.
The petition, which had reached nearly 26,000 signatures as of Wednesday, reads that the pair being given “Star Wars” was a “mistake, plain and simple.”
Back in February, Disney and Lucasfilm tapped Benioff and Weiss to write and produce a series separate from the long-running Skywalker saga which began back in 1977.
The petition was started two weeks ago by an anonymous person who claimed to have the name George R. R. Martin -- the author of the “A Song of Ice and Fire” book series on which the HBO show had been based.
The creator, who is looking to obtain 35,000 signatures, said it would be in Disney’s best interest to remove Benioff and Weiss entirely because they “have a crutch for plot devices and rushed stories with emphasis on ‘shock and awe’ storytelling.”
Throughout the final season of “Game of Thrones,” many critics and viewers felt that the writers had rushed complicated plotlines, focused more on spectacle than coherence, and made characters perform that felt unlike them -- all of which left fans unsatisfied.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little bit worried,” host of the “Star Wars 7x7 Podcast” Allen Voivod told CTV News Channel. “They’re very valid criticisms.”
The show’s finale is considered one of the worst episodes of the series, with a rating of only 4.3 stars out of ten on Internet Movie Database, based on nearly 200,000 reviews.
Not the first petition
“Seeing how these writers handled the most popular TV show of a generation and seeing how the fans are reacting to it should not be rewarded with giving them the most popular movie franchise in the world,” the petition continued.
“There are plenty of talented writers and producers loyal to the franchise that would make much better work in the Star Wars Universe,” it concluded. “Subvert our expectations, Disney!”
But this is only the latest petition against Benioff and Weiss that has popped up since the fantasy epic ended on May 19.
Earlier this month, hundreds of thousands of disappointed “Game of Thrones” fans began signing a petition calling for the show’s final season to be remade entirely.
The Change.org plea stemmed from widespread anger at how the shortened last season had been unfolding. It has since racked up more than 1.6 million names.
Will Disney step in?
While Disney isn’t expected to bow to the whims of this latest hoard of jilted fans, Voivod pointed out that the entertainment behemoth has taken steps to fix installments in the “Star Wars” franchise in the past.
These included switching out the initial writer for “The Force Awakens,” hiring new writers for “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” and dismissing the original writers for “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
“They have no problem doing it,” he said.
The latest “Star Wars” film, “The Last Jedi,” proved divisive, with some fans complaining that characters made questionable, avoidable decisions; plotlines led nowhere; and abandoned story threads that “The Force Awakens” had established.
And with its director Rian Johnson also been tapped to direct his own separate Star Wars trilogy -- it goes without saying that a petition is likely in his future too.
With files from Cillian O’Brien
