Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have signed a deal reportedly worth a jaw-dropping nine figures to make new content for Netflix.
The streaming giant snapped up the duo amid stiff competition from Comcast (Universal/NBC), Amazon, Disney, Apple and HBO, the latter of which Benioff and Weiss worked with on Game of Thrones for more than a decade.
In the end it came down to Netflix, Amazon and Disney, with Netflix’s chief content officer Ted Sarandos confirming to Deadline they had won the bidding war.
In a statement Weiss and Benioff said while they had a “beautiful run” with HBO they were “excited” about moving to Netflix.
“Netflix has built something astounding and unprecedented, and we’re honoured they invited us to join them,” they said.
Sources told Deadline Benioff and Weiss had signed a deal in the nine-figure region, in line with similar deals Netflix made with other show creators such as American Horror Story’s Ryan Murphy and Grey’s Anatomy’s Shonda Rhimes.
Netflix isn’t the only place the Game of Thrones creators will be making new content, with the pair signed with Disney to create the next Star Wars trilogy.
Weiss and Benioff have remained in demand despite mixed reactions from fans to the final season of Game of Thrones .
Viewers criticised how they wrapped up the popular fantasy series, in particular the “mad queen” Daenerys Targaryen storyline which many claimed wasn’t fleshed out enough.
More than 1.7 million disgruntled fans signed a Change.org petition calling for season eight to be remade with “competent writers”.
“David Benioff and D.B. Weiss have proven themselves to be woefully incompetent writers when they have no source material (i.e. the books) to fall back on,” the petition read.
But HBO dismissed the criticism, with president of programming Casey Bloys admitting the network “never seriously considered” reshooting the show as per the petition.
