Many Star Wars fans have defended Kathleen Kennedy over the years. After all, her credits include Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, Back to the Future and more, so clearly she’s good at her job. But ever since Disney took over the aforementioned sci-fi franchise, those same fans are beginning to see things in a different light.
Especially after the dismal Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, her role with Lucasfilm has become pretty shaky. By deciding not to plan out the Sequel Trilogy in advance, we got a series of movies that lacked a clear direction or theme. Not to mention the behind-the-scenes drama and box office failure of Solo: A Star Wars Story and a creative atmosphere that she’s created which has many directors declaring that working with Star Wars is more trouble than they care to deal with.
The last straw for many, though, came with the Obi-Wan Disney Plus show, which was put on indefinite hiatus after Kennedy decided the scripts weren’t good enough. And now, Midnight’s Edge claims that the studio is feeling the same way, as they say she could be up for an “early retirement.” Reportedly, Disney thinks the time is right for a change in leadership at Lucasfilm and frankly, we don’t blame them for feeling this way.
While Kennedy’s contract is currently set to expire in 2021, it’s unlikely that Disney will allow her to continue handling things the way she has been and we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them push her out the door a bit early. After all, there’ve been numerous reports pointing to this happening ever since Rise released – and even before that, actually – and at this point, the studio would be wise to get someone else in charge. Like maybe Kevin Feige?
But what do you make of all this? Should Lucasfilm and Disney get rid of Kathleen Kennedy and hire someone else to oversee Star Wars moving forward? Let us know what you think down below.