Today in worlds been had colliding: Netflix released a trailer for Leslie Jones: Time Machine, a stand-up special from the former Saturday Night Live breakout star. Cool, pretty standard. But then that trailer has a heavy Game of Thrones theme, with Thrones-inspired titles and music and Jones making a “Dracarys” joke. It all builds to the big reveal: “Directed by David Benioff & D.B. Weiss.” You know, the Game of Thrones creators everyone is mad at because Season 8 wasn’t good.
My head just exploded like Oberyn Martell.
So yeah, the Game of Thrones guys’ first post-Thrones project and first project for Netflix is directing a stand-up special. It will set a record for having the most CGI shots in any stand-up special (jk), and instead of a bottled water she’ll have a stray Starbucks cup on a stool (jk jk). Jones wrote the first two-thirds and then Benioff & Weiss finished it based on what she told them was going to happen (jk jk jk).
How did Jones and the Thrones guys link up? They must have been fans of the Game of Thrones videos she did with Seth Meyers?
Benioff & Weiss have done comedy before. They wrote an episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia in 2013 and guest-starred in 2017 as water park lifeguards. So their collaboration with Jones is out of the blue, but it’s not without precedent.
Leslie Jones: Time Machine arrives on Netflix Tuesday, Jan. 14.
Leslie Jones