News Marcia Lucas calls out Kennedy and Abrams, pans the Sequels

[FPAlpha]

How rude.

Why is that rude? Quality in entertainment, i.e. movies, shows, theater etc. is subjective of course but the majority of Star Wars fans do not like the Disney trilogy and it also shows objectively at the box office, where each movie of the trilogy made less money at the box office than the previous one and the general consensus amongst critics and fans is not that favorable ( still profitable but not when you consider it has the Star Wars label on it).

So if a boss looks at the general situation and sees it is not working to expectations he will fire the person who is at the helm and replaces him/her - that's how companies work and have always worked, that's not rude. Either the Disney boss hires someone new in that regard or he takes a chance and promotes either Favreau or Filoni ( depending if they're interested) and make them head of Star Wars. They have proven themselves critically and financially ( especially Filoni, who's been doing Star Wars for longer than Favreau) so it may not be a bad choice.

 

[FPAlpha]

He was a film school superstar at USC and his student films had Coppola notice him, so I think it's a yes.

Then something must have happened. I don't claim Star Wars is Oscar level material, it never has been but the single ingredients of it have formed together to make something great. So at some point Lucas must have lost it, if he ever had it to begin with and i'm not sure about that film school superstar or not.

 

[fireproof78]

Why is that rude?

Wishing someone to get fired is generally considered rude.

Disney can do a lot with regards to LFL and firing Kennedy is not the only option. As stated, it hasn't been all losses under her direction so the quickness of many to call for her resignation appears mean spirited. It's not like Favreau and Filoni can't make good content with her still there.

 

[Tuskin38]

Why is that rude?

Wishing someone to be fired is rude as fuck.

Like had they done something heinous, like sexual abuse or assaulting an employee sure I'd agree with it. But producing a single bad movie isn't a good enough reason to wish for someone to be fired.

Kennedy was the probably the person to decided to give Filoni and Favreau their shows.

Kennedy isn't the creative head at LucasFilm, she's just the CEO, and Filoni is in a creative role at the company already.

Disney ain't going to fire her, she's making them money.

 

[KennyB]

So if a boss looks at the general situation and sees it is not working to expectations he will fire the person who is at the helm and replaces him/her - that's how companies work and have always worked, that's not rude.

She has made them a shit ton of money since Disney acquired Lucasfilm. If she is to blame for the "failure" of the sequel trilogy, then she is also should be credited for the success of The Mandalorian........shareholders don't really care about what fans post online as long as their dividend checks keep coming and growing. That's how business works. Let's see how the next year goes......I expect it will go well for Lucasfilm.

Visions (2021)
The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Andor (2022)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Willow (2022)
Indiana Jones film (2022)

 

[The Nth Doctor]

"Talented" filmmaker? No. Briliant visionary? Absolutely.

Lucas is talented in dreaming up settings, a visual style and a broad universe where his story takes place but when the time comes to put it all to paper and onto film he's just not good, the prequels more so than anything else have proven this. Unfortunately his ego is too big to realize his limitations and there was no one around with enough power to tell him that what he's doing is not good so we got what we got.

I have to disagree to a certain degree. I know this is a dangerous thing to say around here, but I've often argued that the best Lucas-directed film is THX 1138...and I say that as someone who thinks A New Hope is the best Star Wars film. Of course, he didn't direct The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, but I would still say that.

 

[FPAlpha]

She has made them a shit ton of money since Disney acquired Lucasfilm. If she is to blame for the "failure" of the sequel trilogy, then she is also should be credited for the success of The Mandalorian........shareholders don't really care about what fans post online as long as their dividend checks keep coming and growing. That's how business works. Let's see how the next year goes......I expect it will go well for Lucasfilm.

Visions (2021)
The Book of Boba Fett (2021)
Andor (2022)
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
Willow (2022)
Indiana Jones film (2022)

If you underperform and not meet expectations your boss will take a closer look. While Kennedy was at the helm initially the Disney Trilogy underperformed and was panned both by critics and the audience. I don't know the interna at Disney of course and why she is still at her position as Disney's initial plan was scrapped - the initial Solo sequels didn't materilaize, the trilogy movies made less and less money with each showing and only with the smash hit Mandalorian did the downward trend stop for now.

We don't know yet if Star Wars will recover fully and return to reign at the box office or if the new shows will be as big of a hit as Mandalorian but i wouldn't bet on Kennedy keeping her job until 2022 is over if the new stuff coming in 2022 doesn't pay off big. I don't know where you all work and what your company structure is like but at these levels your set is only as firm as your last success and that includes successes that weren't as big as expected.

You mention shareholders - you also realize that shareholders are a greedy lot and if the dividend could be higher with a change in leadership they won't hesitate to call for her head. If these new shows underperform or even fail i fully expect Kennedy to be fired by the end of next year at the latest.

 

[fireproof78]

If you underperform and not meet expectations your boss will take a closer look. While Kennedy was at the helm initially the Disney Trilogy underperformed and was panned both by critics and the audience. I don't know the interna at Disney of course and why she is still at her position as Disney's initial plan was scrapped - the initial Solo sequels didn't materilaize, the trilogy movies made less and less money with each showing and only with the smash hit Mandalorian did the downward trend stop for now.

We don't know yet if Star Wars will recover fully and return to reign at the box office or if the new shows will be as big of a hit as Mandalorian but i wouldn't bet on Kennedy keeping her job until 2022 is over if the new stuff coming in 2022 doesn't pay off big. I don't know where you all work and what your company structure is like but at these levels your set is only as firm as your last success and that includes successes that weren't as big as expected.

You mention shareholders - you also realize that shareholders are a greedy lot and if the dividend could be higher with a change in leadership they won't hesitate to call for her head. If these new shows underperform or even fail i fully expect Kennedy to be fired by the end of next year at the latest.

This is far different than wishing someone to be fired, as the "hopefully Disney will fire Kennedy" comment indicated. If she underperforms then that is up to her company to decide, as you note. Also, the Solo sequels were changed because Disney's CEO owned that failure, not Kennedy, as he recognized that their plan was not going to work the way they wanted.

But, again, this is business speak. Fans wishing her to be fired by Disney is not business but personal. So, expecting Kennedy to be fired due to current performance, vs. hoping she is fired is the difference, at least for me. One is a purely business decision, and the other is basically hoping someone loses their job, which is rude to me.

 

[Mach5]

Kennedy isn't the creative head at LucasFilm, she's just the CEO

She had a producer or executive producer credit on everything Lucasfilm released since she took over, I believe.

 

[BillJ]

We don't know yet if Star Wars will recover fully and return to reign at the box office or if the new shows will be as big of a hit as Mandalorian but i wouldn't bet on Kennedy keeping her job until 2022 is over if the new stuff coming in 2022 doesn't pay off big.

You have some kind of inside information? She has made Disney a metric fuckton of money.

It makes me giggle when fans think they know better than the parent company.

 

[The Wormhole]

The only Star Wars production done under Kathleen Kennedy that can be considered a failure is Solo. That's one movie out of five movies and a few TV shows. Nobody gets fired over one failure amidst that much success, unless it's one hella failure. Solo was not that kind of failure.

 

[FPAlpha]

You have some kind of inside information? She has made Disney a metric fuckton of money.

It makes me giggle when fans think they know better than the parent company.

As i said the Disney trilogy had sharp drop offs for each new movie in the trilogy, that is worrying for something that has the Star Wars label on it. Sure the movies were profitable but what do you think a movie series would have made if it had the critical and fan acclaim of the Mandalorian and sparked the same reaction as the original trilogy did?

The fact that the movies were profitable only means Kennedy kept her job for now but in terms of business Star Wars is expected to earn huge money, merely adequate won't do in the long run.

And yes, after i saw the trilogy i wished for Kennedy to be fired as she signed off on these movies and it is her responsibility as she threatened to run a franchise into the ground that i really care about. She lucked out when she green lighted Mandalorian, which was made by people who really understand how to make a good show and in the case of Dave Filoni live and breathe Star Wars.

I have nothing personal against her. If under her leadership Star Wars returns to making good movies and shows i don't care who's at the helm but she came quite close to ruining it and if i were her boss i'd have been close to pulling the plug.

 

[BillJ]

I'm not interested in re-litigating Fandom vs. Kathleen Kennedy.

She lucked out when she green lighted Mandalorian, which was made by people who really understand how to make a good show and in the case of Dave Filoni live and breathe Star Wars.

So she hires creative people? She should get every bit of credit for hiring Filoni as derision she gets for hiring Abrams and Johnson. Not one person on this planet bats a thousand. We saw how much derision the franchise took when Lucas himself came down off the mountain to make three more toy commercials.

...and sparked the same reaction as the original trilogy did?

The original Star Wars trilogy was lightening in a bottle, even then, the final movie just wasn't very good. There aren't too many people out there are capable of recapturing it.

 

[BillJ]

The only Star Wars production done under Kathleen Kennedy that can be considered a failure is Solo.

Which is probably the best Star Wars movie since The Empire Strikes Back.

 

[fireproof78]

sparked the same reaction as the original trilogy did?

Impossible.

So she hires creative people? She should get every bit of credit for hiring Filoni as derision she gets for hiring Abrams and Johnson. Not one person on this planet bats a thousand. We saw how much derision the franchise took when Lucas himself came down off the mountain to make three more toy commercials.

Indeed. A person at the lead is responsible for the success and failures. It's a gross oversimplification to damn Kennedy's output and yet turn around praise Filoni and Favreau who are operating under Kennedy. It's ridiculous.

The truth of the matter is the OT is not recapturable. It's not like Lucas hasn't explored various facets of the Star Wars universe before the ST came along and "ruined" the franchise. The Ewok films, the PT (which inspired such loving adoration from fans as "Lucas raped my childhood.") and the Clone Wars all were severely derided by fans. Ahsoka was largely hated, and the Ewoks were considered a toy cash grab.

So it goes with LFL now. Kennedy is trying to navigate the same extremely difficult waters as before, but now with an even more jaded fan base and a larger platform to react from.

 

[Tuskin38]

She had a producer or executive producer credit on everything Lucasfilm released since she took over, I believe.

That doesn't change what I said. She isn't involved in all the creative decisions. She hires the people that make those decisions.

So she hires creative people? She should get every bit of credit for hiring Filoni as derision she gets for hiring Abrams and Johnson. Not one person on this planet bats a thousand. We saw how much derision the franchise took when Lucas himself came down off the mountain to make three more toy commercials.

Filoni was already working at LucasFilm when Kennedy took over. I believe it was Favreau who asked him to work on Mando with him as they already had relationship. Kennedy would have brought on Favreau though.

 

[Jayson1]

Kennedy should simply go back to doing what she was great at and that was being a producer. Or redefine her role and remove some of her power in terms of creative choices and have her stick to the business aspect of Star Wars.

 

[KennyB]

Kennedy should simply go back to doing what she was great at and that was being a producer. Or redefine her role and remove some of her power in terms of creative choices and have her stick to the business aspect of Star Wars.

She is..........and unless SHE decides to step down, I doubt she goes anywhere. It is really only fans behind keyboards that have a problem with her. When Disney took over, they wanted E VII out within 18-24 months.........She made that happen. In hindsight were mistakes made? Sure. Did she deliver what the company demaded? Yup.

 

[Jayson1]

I agree Disney seems to be happy with her. Star Wars is making money and even though the brand has been tarnished I don't think they see that. Rick Berman stayed around on Trek for basically the same reason.

 

[fireproof78]

If it is tarnished it will endure, despite predictions of its imminent demise.