This is fascinating. The reasons why Colin Trevorrow were fired from Episode 9 are coming to light: If true, this is really disappointing with regards to Kathleen Kennedy. Perhaps proof that she is the wrong person to be the 'Kevin Feige' of this franchise, especially given how divisive The Last Jedi was. Should someone else take the reigns? Or should this approach to Star Wars continue?
Usually conspiracy level stuff that I have started to expect from the Internet. Lucas picked Kennedy. Let's at least allow her to finish one trilogy before we call for her resignation.
Not going to watch an inane fan conspiracy video. What are his accusations and sources of his claim? And why can't these people ever write a damn article instead?
As seen as you see a video on any youtubechannel that starts with 'the reason why...' just ignore it.
Seriously. Give me one article, that I can read at my leisure. None of that "fifteen pages for the ad clicks" crap. Videos are a waste of time and bandwidth.
I saw it... on a YouTube fanmade conspiracy video... I think it was called Midnight's Edge. ETA: Oh, FFS, I just actually watched the video. I can't even... I don't know how anyone could take this seriously. This vlogger is a complete moron. He's comparing Luke Skywalker to an app on his smartphone? Come on! Then, he suggests that if we were okay with Luke dying that we should reconsider if we're actually Star Wars fans? Come. On! Not only that but 90% of the video, he calls the subject "Crazy Kathleen Kennedy?" Yeah, because that's a way to make your point. Not to mention that he's using MovieWeb as a source, which is almost as bad as Midnight's Edge. It doesn't seem to even occur to people that Star Wars is a multigenerational story. The people who I assume most of who have posted on this thread have had their movies back from 1977-1983. The prequels were for the next generation and the sequels were for the generation after that. It frustrates the living crap out of me that people don't understand that and have such a level of overentitlement that if things don't go their way then its the end of the world. Its not. Sorry. Maybe Trevorrow did want Luke to survive? So what? Decisions had been made. If you took that out, the structure changes. Luke's sacrifice makes him bigger than he could be alive. Having him survive, or even worse, actually show up on Crait for real and survive, would be fucking ridiculous. Luke becomes a legend in his death, far greater than he could handle in life. You take that away, I think it would cheapen his effort. Its unfortunate that Carrie Fisher died before Episode IX could be made. I wanted very much to see her in whatever role was planned. But changing the dramatic structure of what happened before just doesn't make any sense to me. We have to deal with what happened. So does Lucasfilm. I'm sorry people are so frustrated because they didn't get what they wanted. But at the end of the day, as much as I love Star Wars, it is just a movie. Getting this upset about it as this guy did? It ain't worth it.
Watched the video. A complete waste of time. He gets way too hung up over the fact that Luke was killed to make space for the new characters. So fucking what? This is their trilogy, they should be the centre of attention. The rest of it is slagging Kathleen Kennedy as some sort of witch trying to destroy Star Wars, JJ Abrams and Rian Johnson are incompetent fuckwits indentured to her, and Colin Trevorrow is an underappreciated genius who tried to stand up to Krazy Kathy and make a good movie, but she slapped him down for his free thinking and artistic vision. Or something.
I actually agree with a lot of what these "angry Youtubers" say about TLJ. I've seen the film 3 times, and my opinion of it has depreciated each time. My friend thinks it's trash and actually walked out when he watched it. I won't go that far...it's poor, but not trash. I also think Rian Johnson is a fuckwit (though not an "incompetent" one, since he successfully made a movie, so he's competent at least). The thing these Youtubers miss is that Kathleen Kennedy is going nowhere. Yes, box office for TLJ was down (but that was to be expected...2nd installments are rarely bigger), but they act like she's sinking the Lucasfilm ship. She isn't. I agree with many of them that want Feloni as head of the creative side with Kennedy head of the business side, but that's not going to happen either. Disney has this all planned out, and Kennedy is staying right where she is. So all they're doing is shouting into the void. They have a right to do so, since they have a right to voice their opinion and they can say what they want on their Youtubes. But they aren't going to effect any change. The best they can do is ignore the rest of Disney Star Wars, which is what I plan to do.
Star Wars ruined itself when it continued past the original 3 films with more movies. It's a simple story that never, ever needed more than that.
While the guy in the video does sound like a loud jackass with some opinions about The Last Jedi that I don't agree with at all, I have wondered what all of the director turmoil behind the scenes of Star Wars indicates, either about Kennedy's management style or about her judgment of talent. While filming seemed to go pretty smoothly for J.J. Abrams on The Force Awakens & Rian Johnson on The Last Jedi, the rest of it has kinda been a hot mess. First we had the massive reshoots on Rogue One, then Lord & Miller getting fired only a few weeks before wrapping production on Solo, and now Colin Trevorrow leaving Episode IX. Now, Star Wars is a strong enough property that it's been able to weather these storms. But still, that's 3 out of the 5 movies that have undergone some major behind the scenes drama. In comparison, we've had 18 Marvel movies so far and I'm only aware of 2 of them having any director controversies (Patty Jenkins leaving Thor: The Dark World and Edgar Wright leaving Ant-Man). I'm not saying that Kennedy is necessarily the problem but it definitely feels like a shift, particularly when Star Wars previously, for good or for ill, was all tethered to the vision of a single filmmaker.
Whoever is head of a certain IP, they always seem to be the target of internet criticism. Remember when all the fanboys and internet journalist flamed George Lucas for the prequels? They even made a documentary about it. "The People vs George Lucas". It's no wonder people are making a stink about the sequel trilogy and anthology films. Also remember, that Zack Snyder is the devil himself. Steven Moffat ruined Dr Who. Russell T. Davies is a hack. Rick Berman killed Star Trek, Etc #sarcasm The internet gave everyone a voice. Doesn't mean you have to listen to it all. Most of it is dissatisfied fans who are venting their frustrations. I imagine a lot of them wouldn't know where to take any of these respective IPs if they were given a chance to direct their course.
Oh, she's definitely part of the problem. 100%. But she's been in the Spielberg/Lucas orbit for 37 years now. She's been a producer for 30 years at least. She has accumulated a lot of power through a long career.....so she's going nowhere. Nothing can touch her, short of a string of successive box office bombs (which is unlikely, because even if "Solo" bombs....Disney is ready for it). So these Youtubers that are angry at her are chasing a lost cause.
The Internet also fuels a lot of reckless speculation, with the conviction that fans have a better understanding of both the property as well as the best way to execute it. And the answer is, as a fan, I really don't. I'm too close, too emotionally invested, to make hard decisions. And, that's what producers and the directors have to do.
I've really enjoyed everything we've gotten under Kennedy, so I hope she stays put for as long as possible. How much has she come up with the stories and stuff? From what I've read, it sounds like most of the stories have been coming from the writers and directors, rather than her.