Game of Thrones is over, and with David Benioff and Dan Weiss not involved in the upcoming prequel series, it's time for them to move on to their next project. That being said, that project will not be their previously announced HBO series Confederate, which was sitting on the back burner and was supposed to resume after the duo finished GOT.
Plans have changed, according to HBO President Casey Bloys, who recently said in so many words that the series is likely done. Benioff and Weiss are looking for a network or streamer to pick them up for a global overall deal, and should that happen, Bloys has confirmed any projects they have in the works at HBO will likely cease.
Any place that they end up at would be lucky to have them. I think anything they have with us would likely not go forward.
It's hard to imagine HBO is falling over itself to make Confederate after the initial controversy following its announcement, although Casey Bloys' statement to Deadline does leave some ambiguity about whether or not it may still happen. The series premise was an alternate reality in which the Confederate States of America successfully remained split from the rest of the United States. It was set to cover the third major Civil War between the Confederacy and the Union in modern times, and imagine a world in which slavery in America was still prevalent.
Backlash against Conderate was almost immediate, and it wasn't long after the announcement that co-executive producer and writer of the series Nichelle Spellman made a statement acknowledging audiences' concern over the premise. HBO later admitted it should've thought out the announcement in a better way considering the delicate subject matter, and said that more answers and an explanation behind the series would come once Game of Thrones was over.
Fast-forward to now, and it appears Confederate won't be happening, period, if David Benioff and Dan Weiss leave HBO for another network. Again, this isn't too surprising given the initial backlash, the fact that the showrunners are leaving, and the lack of a guarantee that HBO won't experience that backlash all over again if more progress were made towards Confederate's development. Beyond the sensitive subject material, there's still a community of disgruntled Game of Thrones fans who are ready to jump on any drama Benioff and Weiss are involved in, and not in a good way.
HBO already has its Game of Thrones prequel, so Casey Bloys and other higher ups probably aren't all that heart-broken if an announced series without much development and some controversy already attached to it doesn't pan out. The cabler has plenty of originals at the moment that subscribers should be excited about, so it can afford to lose one that inspired negative hashtags against it on Twitter to trend at number 1 for a couple of days.
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