Author: Trafficblast

In a big Star Wars shakeup, Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff exited their planned trilogy in what was just the latest loss of top talent for the sci-fi series. At the time, it was believed that the pair’s commitment to Netflix was partly the reason they stepped away, but it appears that isn’t the whole story.

Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that Weiss and Benioff had been thinking about leaving Star Wars since August. That was when the pair signed a five-year, $250 million deal with Netflix to create new movies and TV shows for the streaming network. At the time, Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy was reportedly “unhappy” about the deal with Netflix, which Weiss and Benioff are said to have signed just before they were due to start working on their Star Wars movies.

The report goes on: “Kennedy was not convinced the pair–known for focusing on one project at a time–could develop a sci-fi trilogy while also overseeing film and TV projects at Netflix. Sources say that as the duo shopped for an overall deal over the summer, they told potential suitors that they planned to work on Star Wars concurrently with any projects under their new deal.”

It was also reported that Kennedy became nervous over the idea of Weiss and Benioff sharing time between Star Wars and the Netflix projects. Netflix reportedly required Weiss and Benioff to physically be on set for their projects.

Weiss and Benioff became just the latest top talent to quit or be fired from high-level Star Wars creative posts. Disney fired Chronicle director Josh Trank from a Star Wars movie in 2015, while the company also removed directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord from Solo: A Star Wars Story during development in 2017 (Ron Howard was later brought on). Also that year, Disney parted ways with Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow, who was due to direct Star Wars: Episode IX. The 2016 movie Rogue One also faced some trouble, as Tony Gilroy was brought on to rewrite and re-shoot some of Godzilla director Gareth Edwards’ standalone movie Rogue One.

The entire story at The Hollywood Reporter is very fascinating and incredibly in-depth, offering a lot of insight and context on the matter–you should read the whole thing here at THR.

The official line on the matter is that Weiss and Benioff did not feel comfortable splitting their time between Star Wars and Netflix. “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,” Weiss and Benioff said. “So we are regretfully stepping away.”

The new Star Wars trilogy is not the first casualty related to Weiss and Benioff signing with Netflix. Their controversial HBO show, Confederate, was also killed off after the pair signed for big money with Netflix.

While the new Star Wars trilogy from Weiss and Benioff is finished, Disney is still moving forward with another trilogy of new Star Wars films from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. There is no word on if Lucasfilm plans to greenlight a new trilogy of Star Wars films to replace the three movies that Weiss and Benioff were expected to make.

The next Star Wars movie is this December’s The Rise of Skywalker, which wraps up the entire Skywalker Saga that began back in 1977.

As for Star Wars video games, Apex Legends developer Respawn is releasing Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 15.

In the wake of Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss stepping away from their Star Wars trilogy, new details surrounding the project have come to light. Variety reports that the intended focus of their series of movies was going to be the origin of the Jedi.

“The ‘Star Wars’ period the pair was interested in exploring was how the Jedi came to exist,” reads Variety’s report.

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BioWare continues to work on Dragon Age 4, but don’t expect it to release anytime soon. Electronic Arts CFO Blake Jorgensen said on an earnings call that Dragon Age 4 is likely still two or more years away from releasing.

He said fans can expect to play Dragon Age 4 after Fiscal Year 2022. That period runs from April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2022, so fans shouldn’t expect Dragon Age 4 until April 2022 at the very soonest. Jorgensen said “plans are underway for that product,” which makes it sound like it’s still early days for Dragon Age 4.

After much speculation, Dragon Age 4’s first teaser was shown during The Game Awards in December 2018. A brief teaser trailer showed some slow pans across artifacts, and a hashtag that likely hints at a central story figure. It read, “The Dread Wolf Rises.”

In a 2018 blog post, BioWare’s Mark Darrah confirmed that Dragon Age 4 has been in the works for “quite a while.” Some of the “core” team that worked on the previous Dragon Age games are back for the new one, while BioWare’s plan is to “push BioWare’s storytelling to the next level.”

Dragon Age 4’s creative director is Matthew Goldman. He said BioWare has put together its “strongest team yet” to work on the new Dragon Age. He called it the “most epic quest ever.”

Dragon Age 4 may not be the only title BioWare is working on right now, as Jorgensen added that BioWare has other titles in the works, though he did not name them.

The Dragon Age franchise hasn’t seen a new release since 2014’s Dragon Age: Inquisition. That game was well received and it was a commercial success.

“City of Bane” may not be working out as hoped, but that’s not the only new Batman content from writer Tom King on tap this month. Batman Annual #4 comes along at the perfect time to give readers a break from the frustrating climax of King’s main series. This issue is a perfect showcase of everything that makes the series shine. It’s a poignant and beautifully illustrated reflection on why Batman does what he does.

While not directly tied to the events of King’s run, Batman Annual #4 is significant in that it comes on the heels of a major twist in Batman #77. Alfred Pennyworth’s narration fuels this story, as he narrates a series of strange adventures that make up Batman’s day-to-day life. The goal is nothing more or less than to understand what motivates Bruce Wayne and whether he’s a man without fear or a man who ignores fear.

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Valve’s big Steam library redesign is finally live for everyone. Following a beta, the redesigned Steam library is available to download right now.

Steam’s new library is long overdue, and Valve broke down the various new features in a blog post. But going forward it’s clear that Valve is hoping the Steam library becomes more of a hub where players can track their favorite games and communities all from one place.

The first big change is the look. The Steam library now acts as a landing page that gives immediate updates on recently played games, friend activity, and game updates.

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On this week’s episode of IGN’s PlayStation show Podcast Beyond, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Max Scoville to discuss Death Stranding’s PC port confirmation and its lack of PS4 exclusivity, Sony’s trademarks of the PS6, PS7, PS8, PS9, and PS10 and whether that means we’ll be seeing a lot more PlayStation exclusives.

The duo talks about some more news, like the Fallout 76 Fallout 1st blunders, while Max offers his thoughts on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and The Outer Worlds and Jonathon discusses his Afterparty review.

Have questions, comments, or Memory Card stories? Send them to [email protected].

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