Confederate, HBO’s controversial series that was to imagine a time after the Civil War where the South won, is no longer in development at HBO, according to Vulture.
Sources with knowledge of the project told Vulture that showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff don’t have any series left at HBO following their move to Netflix. Weiss and Benioff, who are best known for creating Game of Thrones, announced Confederate as their next project at HBO in 2017. The announcement was met with immediate criticism from people who voiced concerns over whether Benioff and Weiss were the right people to handle the show. HBO chief Casey Bloys later admitted the network could have done a better job rolling out the announcement, but he hoped “that people will reserve judgment until there is something to see.”
Questions about whether Confederate was still in development were raised up until earlier this year when Bloys confirmed that the project was still on. The show was delayed, which Bloys said had to do with Benioff and Weiss’ time being wrapped up in working on a new Star Wars trilogy for Disney.
“It’s hard to say to someone, ‘You can’t go do Star Wars.’ They love it,” Bloys told TVLine in February. “It’s a childhood dream. They’ll go do that, remember why they love television and come back.”
That was when Benioff and Weiss were still with HBO, though. Now they’re with Netflix — a deal that landed them $200 million. Without any attachment to the network, it makes sense that HBO would cancel the show. The Verge has reached out to HBO for further comment.