Something long awaited may finally be close as Kathleen Kennedy is expected to retires as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year. A new report by THR says Kennedy may be finally ready to move on from her role overseeing all things Star Wars for Disney. THR is getting their information from Puck News, however they must feel confident it is accurate, or I don’t think they cover this. 

Here’s what THR says,

‘After more than a decade in a galaxy far, far away, Kathleen Kennedy is charting a course toward retirement. The Lucasfilm boss has told associates she plans to retire by the end of 2025, Puck reported Monday night.’

‘Reps for Kennedy and Lucasfilm were not immediately available for comment.’

There’s been a million false claims that Kennedy was getting fired or retiring over the last few years. We here at LRM have always said the same thing, based on what we had heard, plus common sense. That she’d see out her contract, then retire on her own terms. I’d be surprised at this point if there’s not some pressure from Disney. However, this is exactly how we thought things would play out.

I think the majority of Star Wars fans will be happy with this news. Kennedy’s tenure hasn’t exactly been all home runs. It’s also not been full of complete disasters. In terms of movies, it’s not a great run.

Movies

Rogue One was decent and popular, Solo was not. However it’s the Sequel Trilogy that muddies the waters. I’d argue those three movies are the single worst idea Disney has had regarding this franchise. Decisions were made they may never recover from. We know it wasn’t Kennedy rushing the ST along, that was Iger. However, it was Kennedy who chose J.J. Abrams.

Abrams first movie was popular and… not too bad on first watch. However, he did fail to set up much of a story. Hindsight shows it was also completely unoriginal, which should be expected from Abrams, that’s his schtick. It was also he who made the decision to side-line Luke Skywalker till the second film. Kennedy also has to take heat for not having an actual story planned out. Therefore, when Rian Johnson made TLJ, he did his own thing.

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Then when she hired Trevorrow, a clear mistake to begin with, for the third film things really got messed up. Kennedy panicked and realised Trevorrow was no good. She therefore brought back Abrams, mainly because The Force Awakens was popular and TLJ was not. However, Kennedy let Abrams undo everything changed by Johnson for the second film. What we ended up with was a film so bad it actual demeaned the conclusion of Return of the Jedi. The Rise of Skywalker was so disliked by the already fractured fan base that we haven’t had a Star Wars film since.

Kennedy has also announced a ton of movies by creators that have never  materialized. The general feeling is that Kennedy or Disney made the call to announce projects before scripts had even been attempted, never mind finalized. It’s became a meme that anything announced by Lucasfilm you simply don’t believe until production begins. So far that has only happened once since TROS, and that’s the currently filming The Mandalorian and Grogu. 

Let’s also not forget Kennedy oversaw Indiana Jones 5 and it was ultimately, crap and a box office bomb. 

TV/Disney+

On the TV side Kennedy has had a bit more success. The call to take Star Wars to TV likely was a Disney mandate as opposed to Kennedy. However, she let Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni cook and they came up with The Mandalorian. It’s fair to say the show was a roaring success, though Season 3 was less loved by fans.

Spin-off The Book of Boba Fett was poorly made and Robert Rodriguez the wrong choice to direct it. The big fail however came with Obi-Wan Kenobi. It had some good ideas. However, it was poorly executed, cheap looking and nonsensical at times. It made some bad calls and the script was clearly rushed and padded out from a previous movie script. 

Andor was the biggest success critically for Kennedy, because she just let Tony Gilroy do his thing. Though, probably because of all the previous fumbles, Andor wasn’t that popular compared to other Star Wars shows. Finally, we have Ahsoka which for me, was a mess of a show tonally and just wasn’t written that well. Then of course, we get to The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew. One sounded great and was rubbish and the other sounded terrible and was actually watchable, but also forgettable. 

Lastly, Kennedy also produced Willow. A show so bad, Disney took it off Disney+ permanently. You can’t even watch it.

Overall, I would find it hard to argue that Kennedy’s tenure as Lucasfilm president has been anything other than a disaster. 

What do you think of the news that Kathleen Kennedy is expected to retire as Lucasfilm president by the end of this year? Thoughts below, should Kathleen Kennedy retire, or is it already too late? 

 

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