Kathleen Kennedy’s exit from Lucasfilm and her replacements have now been made official. In Kennedy’s outgoing interview she also had comments on various upcoming movies’ current status. There’s some intriguing words to dissect here.
First off let’s start with the official news as per StarWars.com,
‘Lucasfilm announced today that after 14 years of leading the studio, President Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down from her role. Kennedy will return to full-time producing, including the studio’s upcoming feature films The Mandalorian and Grogu and Star Wars: Starfighter.’
‘Dave Filoni, who worked closely with creator George Lucas to build the Lucasfilm animation department on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and helped launch Star Wars live-action series alongside Jon Favreau on The Mandalorian, will take on creative leadership of the company as President and Chief Creative Officer and Lynwen Brennan will serve as Co-President.’
Of course we knew all this over a week ago as per the related section below. Though it was still a rumor only, it’s now been made official just as predicted in the rumor.
There is however, I think more interesting content from an exit interview that Kennedy did (probably weeks ago) with Deadline.
This is a huge piece, so click the link for the full conversation. There was however, some talk from Kennedy on the movies that have still to come and their current status which was I think revealing.
Star Wars: Starfighter
First off some information on Star Wars: Starfighter.
“It was envisioned as a single film. Shawn Levy just made the experience so pleasant for everybody, and we found this 14-year-old kid out of Ireland who had virtually no experience. That’s always risky, hanging a story so much on a child actor. You’re not exactly sure how comfortable they’re going to be. Flynn Gray turned out to be such a special kid.”
“When you cast kids, a lot of it becomes about the parents. He has great parents and got lucky there, too.”
“Not only was he there with Ryan Gosling; this movie is structured in a way that he had kind of a new actor coming in every few weeks that he was one-on-one with. Matt Smith, Amy Adams, Aaron Pierre. And each one, it was so great to watch him because he would just get so excited by the actors he got to work with. It was like he was in the best university you could possibly be in.”
Could It Continue?
“We could, but this was designed as a real stand-alone. We have the Mandalorian movie with Jon Favreau coming next, which also was great and a completely different Star Wars movie. That comes out in May. And as soon as I get back into town, I’m sitting down with Jon and looking at that. The whole time I’ve been shooting Starfighter, we’ve been working on effects that are going into that movie. We finished shooting in November. We’ve had a long post on that. And so I’ll oversee a lot of those effect shots cut into Jon’s movie, and I’ll get myself re-immersed and get that finished.”
“With Shawn’s movie, this could go on, but it’s not our intention right now. We really made the movie as a stand-alone story. But you cannot ignore the fact that this young actor is so good. I will be very surprised if he doesn’t go on and we don’t try to see if there might be future stories. But it was kind of nice not going into this and not having to think that way. We could just make a movie and tell a story.”
New Blood In Star Wars
Kennedy also spoke about getting new creative talent into Star Wars and how tricky that is. Mentioning that Ryan Coogler didn’t see Star Wars as his kind of thing. Neither did Tony Gilroy, until he started getting the idea for Andor that is. Yet, more people have ben spoke to,
“I’ve had early conversations with David Fincher. With Vince Gilligan for TV. I have sat down with Alex Garland, and others where the minute you say their name, you go, “Oh, that might be an interesting Star Wars.””
“But not everybody is going to just go, “Oh yeah, great. I’m going to drop everything and spend the next three to five years trying to figure this out.” That’s the other thing to consider. These are really complicated, difficult movies to make, far more than I think people give them credit for. People have to set their lives aside for years.”
A Vince Gilligan Star Wars TV series? Count me in if that ever happens. Though, it won’t be any time soon as he’s just started a new journey with Pluribus that could take a decade to fulfil.
Status Of Current Upcoming Movies
Now onto the most interesting part of this interview, what about all the other movies that were announced and were supposedly in development?
“I’ve got to tread a bit carefully here. Jim Mangold and Beau Willimon wrote an incredible script, but it is definitely breaking the mold and it’s on hold. Taika has turned in a script that I think is hilarious and great. It’s not just my decision, especially when I’ve got a foot out the door. Donald Glover has turned in a script. And as you have read, Steve Soderbergh and Adam Driver turned in a script written by Scott Burns. It was just great. Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk.”
It sounds to me like all of these projects are on the spectrum of too risky for Disney execs. Mangold’s movie breaks the mold (or mould if you’re British), Taika’s movie seems like a comedy and we already know Disney execs decided against Driver’s return in The Hunt for Ben Solo. If Kennedy, with the power she had could not get these films past Disney execs, then I can’t see Filoni and Brennan managing it, can you?
RELATED: Dave Filoni And Lynwen Brennan To Co-President Lucasfilm After Kennedy’s Exit | Barside Buzz
“I remember when I came into this job, the first thing Bob Iger said to me was, “Be bold.” I’ve always liked that because I think you have to be bold and you have to be willing to take risks with people and with ideas. Otherwise you are just doing the same thing. Right now we’re in an era where companies are so risk-averse, and I get it. I hear all the conversations. They’ve got Wall Street to please, and I get it, but I also believe that that’s what contributes to things disappearing, ultimately. I just think you have to take those chances.”
“Everything I just reeled off to you is taking a bit of a chance because none of those filmmakers are just walking in trying to do same old, same old. I’m excited by that, but the studio’s nervous about that, and that’s kind of where it sits at the moment.”
There is a fine balance in Star Wars. If you shoot too far for the moon, you end up with something that doesn’t feel like it needs to be in the Star Wars Universe. It should match tonally with the rest of the Universe even if the story is a different genre from the traditional films.
Also notice that there is no mention anywhere in this article of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s Rey Sequel currently referred to as New Jedi Order (not actual title). Absolutley none. That’s odd isn’t it?
Rian Johnson Got Spooked
Kennedy also admits, that even though the Knives Out Netflix deal came along, the negative feedback to The Last Jedi did spook director Rian Johnson.
“Once he made the Netflix deal and went off to start doing the Knives Out films, that has occupied a huge amount of his time. That’s the other thing that happens here. After Shawn and I started talking about Star Wars, Stranger Things kicks in and he was completely consumed for a while by that. That’s what happened with Rian. And then I do believe he got spooked by the online negativity. I think Rian made one of the best Star Wars movies. He’s a brilliant filmmaker and he got spooked. This is the rough part. When people come into this space, I have every filmmaker and actors say to me, “What’s going to happen?” They’re a little scared.”
I disagree Johnson made one of the best Star Wars movies. I won’t get onto why I think that as I covered it enough back in the day. Still, this just confirms what we all thought back then about Johnson’s trilogy. We won’t see it.
Kinberg’s Trilogy Plus More On Developing Films
Kennedy had a bit more to say on Simon Kinberg’s in development trilogy, plus some of the other movies mentioned above.
“He’s [Simon Kinberg] working right now. He wrote something that we read in August, and it was very good, but not there. We’ve pretty much upended the story, and then spent a great deal of time on the treatment, which he finished literally about four weeks ago. And it’s a very detailed treatment, like 70 pages. And so he is expected to give us something in March.”
Kennedy indicates other decisions will be up to the new team, but Kinberg’s trilogy is probably what comes next after Starfighter.
“We’ve talked about this new trilogy and then the things that you’ve mentioned. Mangold’s is really on the back burner as is Soderbergh’s. I think the ones by Taika and Donald are still somewhat alive. That’s going to really be up to the new team to figure out. Dave, I know that Dave and Lynwen are very much on board with what Simon’s doing, and that would be a new trilogy. In the timeline of things, that takes you well into 2030 plus. So that’s really what’s up next.”
Mangold and Soderbergh’s films seem almost dead to me, whereas Glover’s Lando film and Taika’s film have a chance still. That’s what I get from this. Again, no mention at all of the New Jedi Order film, meaning that’s almost certainly dead.
Exit Stage Left
Folks, this is really just scratching the surface of this interview and I recommend reading the full thing to get the bigger picture on Kennedy’s reign and departure. Reading between the lines I think she lost some power to greenlight projects. Probably, based on the fact she chose the wrong people to envision a sequel trilogy and hurt the brand forever more. Then made a genuine flop in Solo.
Also, massive shoutout to the likes of Doomcock/Mike Zeroh etc. who finally got their insider information correct, (5 years late) that Kennedy was leaving Lucasfilm. Kennedy left on her own terms, just as we all said would happen. Grifters gotta keep grifting though.
What do you think as the Kathleen Kennedy exit and her replacements have been officially confirmed? What do you think of Kennedy’s comments on the upcoming movies current status? Thoughts below
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