Confederate is still on the march at HBO, network president Casey Bloys says — but the speed of its progress is solely up to series creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss. And they’re a little busy at the moment.
“Dan and David are finishing up the final season [of Game of Thrones] and then they are going to go into the Star Wars universe,” Bloys told TVLine Friday. “When they come out of that, I assume they will come back to us.”
In February 2018, Thrones showrunners Weiss and Benioff signed on to write and produce a new trilogy of Star Wars films. In July, Bloys said that the duo’s deal with Disney (which owns the Star Wars franchise) would mean “no change” for Confederate, the hour-long, sci-fi drama that caused controversy when it HBO greenlit it in July 2017.
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Confederate envisions an alternate, post-Civil War world in which “the southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, giving rise to a nation in which slavery remains legal and has evolved into a modern institution,” per the official logline. Critics noted the irony of two white men, who have been criticized for Thrones‘ lack of racial diversity, helming a show about slavery. HBO later admitted to flubbing the series’ “misguided” announcement.
Bloys maintained that Confederate‘s production timeline is entirely up to Benioff and Weiss and is in no way affected by the controversy.
“The delay has to do with [the fact] that they were offered three movies,” he said.
Confederate‘s creative team also includes two prolific African-American writer-producers: Nichelle Tramble Spellman (The Good Wife) and Malcolm Spellman (Empire). In July, Bloys said that no Confederate scripts had been written yet.
The series’ gameplan is “really up to [Benioff and Weiss],” he added Friday. “It’s hard to say to someone, ‘You can’t go do Star Wars. They love it. It’s a childhood dream. They’ll go do that, remember why they love television and come back.” —With reporting by Michael Ausiello
