Kathleen Kennedy Leaving Lucasfilm – For Real This Time (Probably)
It looks like it’s real this time. I know it’s hard to believe, as we’ve had false starts for years, rumors every couple of months, YouTube videos with BIG ALL-CAPS LETTERING declaring it was totally happening. But now, it’s not just wishful thinking or clickbait; the mainstream entertainment media is reporting that Kathleen Kennedy will be stepping down as the president of Lucasfilm sometime this year. Matthew Belloni at Puck was the first to break the news, saying he’s heard from three sources that Kennedy has informed Disney of her intention to retire, although Disney and Kennedy’s publicist declined to comment on the matter. (Puck is behind a paywall, but you can make out the relevant material in the visible opening paragraphs; The Hollywood Reporter has more, but it’s mostly just background stuff everybody knows.) It’s only fair to note that Chris Gore reported that Kennedy wanted to leave six months ago but was waiting for a “big win” to go out on, kind of like George Costanza, only less funny. Did she abandon this plan when it became clear there were no wins in sight, or is she going to count Andor season 2 as the win? The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn’t come out till next year, and that Rey movie doesn’t even have a script yet. If this pans out, it looks like she just decided it’s time.
On Lois and Clark: The New Adventures of Superman, they kept teasing a wedding for the title characters, and every time, some wacky plot twist happened that put it off (clones, memory loss, evil Kryptonian invasion, the return of Lex Luthor). The episode where they finally get married is called “Swear to God, This Time We’re Not Kidding.” That’s what seeing the trades report on Kathleen Kennedy leaving Lucasfilm feels like after years of hearing it, to the point where you learned to tune it out. But here’s what I find amusing: a lot of people are going to celebrate this, and the social media posts and memes will likely be hilarious, but does it really matter? It’s not like Star Wars is going to get any better now that she’s gone. And I’m not denying she was one of the main reasons why it imploded, if not the main reason. Aside from being the architect of the Disney era, there are stories of her latching on to the few things that were well-liked, like The Mandalorian, and driving them into the ground. And even if that isn’t true, because of her position, the buck has to stop with her, especially when all of the Lucasfilm properties crashed and burned – Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Willow.
But what good is her leaving going to do now? Aside from the legion of like-minded writers and producers I’m sure she’s leaving behind, those franchises have been irreparably destroyed. The sequels and TV shows weren’t just bad; they tore down the original trilogy, retconned the story into a major failure for the good guys on every level, undid the major characters’ arcs before killing them off, and canonized all of it. You can’t fix that with a zippy adventure featuring Baby Yoda at his most marketable. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (God, she should have been fired for allowing that title alone) was the last shot at making a great Indiana Jones movie, and it was so awful it made Kingdom of the Crystal Skull look like a classic. And Willow, well, I didn’t even think that was a viable franchise in the first place, but it certainly isn’t now, since the sequel series was so bad Disney purged the Earth of it. So, this is a Pyrrhic victory at best; Kathleen Kennedy is leaving on her own terms, and her work will be the lasting memory of a razed studio, the burnt-out husks of the legendary franchises (and Willow) she destroyed. This isn’t a win so much as a hurricane finally moving out to sea, leaving wreckage in its wake.
Let us know what you think of Kathleen Kennedy leaving Lucasfilm in the comments!
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