If It Wasn’t Already Clear, Benioff And Weiss’ ‘Confederate’ Is Officially Dead At HBO

I thought this was a no-brainer given DB Weiss and David Benioff’s exclusivity with Netflix, but apparently not. A couple of years ago the Game of Thrones duo stirred up controversy when they announced a new series, Confederate, which would take place in an alternate history where the Confederate states seceded and maintained slavery. The backlash was immediate, the show shelved, and that was pretty much it. Well, now it’s officially dead.

TVLine reports HBO boss Casey Bloys has confirmed Confederate is no longer in the works at the network. That effectively cuts all ties between the duo and HBO, because to the best of my knowledge they had nothing else in development there.

SO yeah, Confederate was quite a thing in 2017. Personally, I found the premise intriguing and didn’t buy into those who claimed it would present slavery in anything other than a negative light. They were probably aiming for something similar to The Man in the High Castle, which presents a world in which the Nazis are victorious in WWII. However, HBO should’ve known better than to have two prominent white guys like Benioff and Weiss, who didn’t deal with ethnicity too great in Game of Thrones, on a project this divisive. That was just a dumb move.

It’s always possible Benioff and Weiss pitch Confederate elsewhere, but I don’t know if they have the clout anymore. They were riding high a couple of years ago and could’ve gotten anything greenlit at the time. Now? Not so much.

 

Travis Hopson
Travis Hopson has been reviewing movies before he even knew there was such a thing. Having grown up on a combination of bad '80s movies, pro wrestling, comic books, and hip-hop, Travis is uniquely positioned to geek out on just about everything under the sun. A vampire who walks during the day and refuses to sleep, Travis is the co-creator and lead writer for Punch Drunk Critics. He is also a contributor to Good Morning Washington, WBAL Morning News, and WETA Around Town. In the five minutes a day he's not working, Travis is also a voice actor, podcaster, and Twitch gamer. Travis is a voting member of the Critics Choice Association (CCA), Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA), and Late Night programmer for the Lakefront Film Festival.