Kathleen Kennedy Planning to Exit Lucasfilm at the End of 2025

[PeregrineFalcon]

1 hour ago, Troo said:

You mention movies that were meh and what seemed like a side note of how Star Wars took down Toys R Us. I'm not sure I was supposed to know there was a hotel involved.

Bottom line: the movies are crap, the merchandise didn't sell, related IP things like Netflix series and the Galactic Starcruiser Hotel haven't done well. I've shown you proof that Disney hasn't made back what they've paid for Star Wars, the franchise is in a worse place now than it was when they bought it, and it's all the fault of the person who was deliberately running Star Wars into the ground and laughing at the fans while doing it, Kathleen Kennedy.

 

So yeah, ya missed something.

 

And, in case it isn't obvious by now, I've been following this whole debacle for the last 10 years. Becoming more and more angry while Kathleen Kennedy and her woke, man-hating cronies, wreaked one of my favorite IPs and insulted the majority of the fan-base and laughed while doing it. Add to that the constant lying and attempts at gaslighting, about how great and successful they are while show after show fails to get renewed because they're garbage, by internet NPCs has finally just stomped all over my one last nerve. And I apologize if I've taken it out on you.

[Techwright]

3 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

... related IP things like Netflix series ...

 

Was this something other than just the 6th season of The Clone Wars?  I thought I was at least casually acquainted with everything Star Wars put to film or TV, but I can't think of what Netflix had except for The Clone Wars season 6. Was there a kiddie show, like the old Droids cartoon? I might have missed something like that.

[Luminara]

2 hours ago, PeregrineFalcon said:

Bottom line: the movies are crap

 

I'll weigh in on this, and hopefully help shed some light on the discrepancy between opinion and statistic.

 

The movies are crap.

 

The Force Awakens was "Mary Sue versus the emo boy with daddy issues and a penchant for breaking his toys when he throws a temper tantrum".  It had a shit plot, shit storyline and shit execution.  It did extremely well at the box office because it was a Star Wars film released after a content drought.  It could've been about Admiral Akbar fisting randomly selected 8-bit cartoon caricatures of previous cast members while light sabers twirled in the background and Star Wars fans would've flocked to see it for the same reason a starving person will gobble down a hunk of spoiling, moldy meat and declare it the best thing he/she had ever eaten:  if you're hungry enough, you're grateful for anything you can get.

 

The Last Jedi was even worse.  The villains were so thin you got a paper cut every time one of them appeared, the heroes were whiny and irritating and the movie packed a lot of badly used comedy in as padding to cover for the lack of compelling content and uninteresting, one-dimensional characters.  And a lot of people interpreted the burning of the Jedi books as a message, a "Fuck you, we're not interested in the legacy" letter to fans.  People watched this one because they hoped it would redeem the travesty of TFA.  The massive decline in sales proved that it didn't.

 

Rise of the Skywalker was a desperate attempt to change direction, a maneuver performed well after the entire franchise had passed the event horizon of the black hole of suckage.  Too little, too late and badly done.  And everyone knew it was going to suck, that there was no way to pull it back on course short of a full reboot, but they went to see it anyway, for the same reason people stop to watch a multi-car pile-up happening on the highway.  Morbid curiosity.

 

Solo was a lot of lovingly crafted, deeply thought out shots of... iconic props.  And some guy motormouthing his way through a performance as our favorite quiet, brooding smuggler turned hero of the rebellion.  Small wonder everyone left the theater asking themselves, "What the fuck did I just watch?"

Kennedy was responsible for all of that.  She was the producer, she was the head of the entire LucasFilm division, she should've burned the script for TFA the day she saw it.  She didn't.  Instead, she ran with it.  She approved the script.  She approved the changes.  She watched the dailies, the reshoots, the rough cut, the edits and the final cut, and put her stamp on all of it.

 

And then she fucking did it again with TLJ.

 

And then she started scrambling to fix things with RotS, which proved that she was aware of the problems she created.

 

She should've been removed from her position the day TLJ went to theaters, because letting that garbage loose in the world was a sign of either incompetence or a deliberate decision to milk Star Wars fans by delivering a crap product, knowing they'd pay for it no matter how bad it was.  She either made mistake after mistake, or she realized that she could peddle anything to Star Wars fans, cash in on the franchise now and let someone else worry about fixing it in the future.  Neither is a good quality to have in the person heading up the most popular and historically successful franchise that exists.

 

Rogue One was the only good one to come out of her run at the head of LucasFilm.  Rogue One was magnificent.  Heartbreaking, but wonderful.  It had all of the notes of the originals.  Epic, sweeping scale, relatable characters with real flaws and real development, villains who didn't make us feel scornful, heroes who rose to the occasion, joy, sorrow, nobility, fantastic battles... it was the best Star Wars film since The Empire Strikes Back.  But it was under-marketed and quietly shuffled off to the side in favor of the major films.  And that was on her, too.

[Techwright]

26 minutes ago, Luminara said:

 

 

 

And then she started scrambling to fix things with RotS, which proved that she was aware of the problems she created.

 

 

 

Rogue One was the only good one to come out of her run at the head of LucasFilm.  Rogue One was magnificent.  Heartbreaking, but wonderful. 

 

I still remember Daisy Ridley announcing that, going into RotS, they had no idea who Rey's family was, and more or less did the equivalent of a coin toss.  Assuming she's not lying through her teeth, that lack of commitment to a high standard is a very trashy way to treat the franchise and the fans.    I agree on your opinion of KK, but I'd also point a finger at JJA.  Having seen the lack of care he gave to the storytelling in the first two Star Trek Kelvin Universe movies, I know he was at the bottom of some of the major problems in the SW Sequel trilogy.  I'd also mention Ryan Johnson.  I know far less about him, but I've seen that those closer to the situation felt he was terrible for TLJ.  And yet, Lucasfilms has him bookmarked for directing a new SW trilogy, at least according to imdb.com.  And if that is accurate, that wraps back to KK.

 

As to Rogue One, it was indeed magnificent.  Unlike many, I have a relatively favorable view of the Prequel Trilogy, cringed in a few key areas, but accepted it for the fun of the rest of the productions.  In comparison, Rogue One was an unbridled joy to watch.

[Luminara]

3 minutes ago, Techwright said:

I agree on your opinion of KK, but I'd also point a finger at JJA.

 

I had a very long paragraph about him (i think he's an excellent "idea man", but a bad script writer.  he's the kind of writer who needs to be kept in check, not given uncontested control), but I removed it because ultimately, that falls on Kennedy's shoulders, too.  Maybe he was given too much control over TFA, but even if that was the reason it ended up like it did, it's still on Kennedy's shoulders.  She was the shot-caller.  She had months to ask for revisions to the script before principle photography began, she had two years to ask for reshoots after that, and she either did nothing, or asked him to double down on the worst aspects.  Either way, she was responsible for the finished product.