When George Lucas turned Star Wars over to Disney, the House of Mouse immediately tapped long-time producer Kathleen Kennedy to fill the role of Lucasfilm President. Kennedy came with an impressive resume. She’d already worked for decades alongside Lucas and Steven Spielberg on some of the film industry’s biggest blockbusters. Her first foray into the franchise is widely considered the best offering of the Disney Star Wars era. We’re of course referring to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. That, in fact, is often cited among the best films of the entire franchise. Still, several missteps have had fans calling for Kennedy’s head on a platter. Here’s why that ire may be misplaced.
When it comes to criticism of Kathleen Kennedy, the biggest source stems from the decision to allow Rian Johnson to direct The Last Jedi. As missteps go, a merely three-year history since the film’s release already tells us that one was a doozy. That led to a jumbled third installment of the sequel trilogy. Fan hatred for the Lucasfilm exec burned brightly. But…. When you look at what else she’s done for Star Wars as a whole, it’s just as easy to say that, empirically, Kennedy has been downright good for the franchise.
Why Kathleen Kennedy is good for Star Wars
Even looking at one of the other missteps she’s made, we can’t say she’s been overly bad for the franchise by any means. (Yes, the studio bungled the marketing for Solo: A Star Wars Story, but the film itself was actually quite fun.) No, Kennedy’s impact has been quite the opposite. Star Wars Rebels was a critically acclaimed success. Reviving The Clone Wars for a seventh and final season provided us some of the best storytelling in the entire franchise. Then, obviously, there is The Mandalorian. The first-ever, live-action Star Wars television series is unquestionably one of the best things ever to happen to Star Wars. That all happened under Kathleen Kennedy.
Likewise, we certainly cannot discount what’s to come. At Disney’s Investor Day, Lucasfilm announced a whopping ten new Star Wars projects. Among them is a live-action series featuring fan-favorite character Ahsoka Tano. And don’t forget Deborah Chow’s upcoming series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the Rogue One spin-off Andor. Plus, that announcement didn’t even include perhaps the best news of all: Boba Fett is finally getting his live-action due with a series of his own. The Book of Boba Fett arrives Christmas, 2021. Kathleen Kennedy is overseeing the whole lot.
Appreciating what Kennedy brings to the table
As I recently noted, one does not have to love every aspect of a franchise in order to appreciate it as a whole. Sure, Kathleen Kennedy has made a few mistakes. Notwithstanding, remember this: Disney paid Lucas $4 billion (four billion dollars!) to purchase Lucasfilm in 2012. Almost six years to the day, Disney turned a profit on its Star Wars investment. That was over two years ago. Kennedy oversaw everything that got the franchise to that point.
There are a lot of good things coming to Star Wars in the next three years. From The Bad Batch to Patty Jenkins’ feature film, Rogue Squadron, there is plenty of material to look forward to between now and 2023. Like her or hate her, Kathleen Kennedy is a big part of what Star Wars has, and will, achieve since Disney acquired it. Perhaps, maybe, we should cut her a little slack.
No Kathleen Kennedy completely fucked up Star Wars and how the person who made this article thinking.. like bruuuuh the best things we need is to get her away from Star Wars lmao
Cathleen kennedy is the worst director, since Marco Schnabel directed the “love guru” and ate a wopping negative 20 million dollars. Disney barly made any money on that disgusting trilogy. Star wars was suppose to be an excape from politics, and have a good foundation routed in greek mythology, and lessons of morality, not take center stage for the political freak show. I just threw up thinking about what disney, rian j, and kathleen “stupidity” kennedy. Thanks.
Totally agree!!
Kennedy is the worst. She almost single handedly destroyed the Star Wars franchise.
Kathleen Kennedy is a cancer that needs to be removed from lucasfilm asap. She is conflictive, overbearing and has a terrible track record with star wars. She is worst thing that ever happened to star war other than Rian Johnson.
You wouldn’t have The Mandalorian without her, so quit whining.
Uh, no, that was due to the writers and directors making it happen, stop giving credit only when it’s positive.
we got the mandilorian dispite her not because of her
She had to sign off on it, so technically it’s on her as well.
That’s like people saying she’s responsible for ET and Jurassic park. Those films would have still been great without her producing. Fact is the worst things Disney has done with Star Wars are things she directly interferes in. You can thank Favraue and Filoni for the success of the Mandalorian, not Kennedy
*Favreau
She had very little involvement in that as that was all the work of Favreau who was the producer and sometimes director/writer. Kennedy had to step back and take a hands off approach from Star Wars after the failure of Solo, where Disney was looking to replace her due to the ire Lucasfilm was causing towards the fans. As such, she agreed to not have any real input in any SWs projects after Solo’s bomb, which was when The Mandalorian started filming. That became a huge success, which in turn gave Favreau more power and leeway with future SWs content, and in turn made it far more difficult for Kennedy to have any say over his work. Filoni then came out and released The Clone Wars season 7 earlier this year, and again met with great success and in turn pushed Kennedy further into a box where she’s having a far more difficult time since if she tries to interfere with these two, can and will bring the wrath of the Disney execs on her the same way EA brought the wrath of Disney execs on them when Battlefront 2 was going through that major controversy.
That’s literally not true. She’s a figurehead. She has to sign whatever Disney tells her to sign. She tried, hard, to have influence over the Mandalorian, and she was rebuffed at every turn. And there is a 0% chance the second season would have ended the way it did if she was involved.
The creator of the mandalorian is Jon Favreau, nothing to do with her, please check your resources.
Oh really he is? It’s not like we all know that. Sorry a woman gets on your nerves so much about Star Wars. You should check some resources on misogyny.
John wrote the mando you stupid dumb ass kathleen just gave them some Lucas Disney money to make it she is not and actor or director or writer because she crap #HUNTER BODingDUMB
Sorry to trigger you sweetheart. <3
So she can only receive blame, despite not being director, actor or writer? This is how nuts some fans are.
Kathleen Kennedy is and has been all that is bad with Star Wars. First when she took control of Lucas Film she promised to honor and respect The characters and universe George created and flat out lied to use it a vehicle for her own uses. Instead of good story telling and characters we care about she imasculatef and embarrassed Luke Skywalker having Rian Johnson scrap the previous episode and using it to make every male character look incompetent and as for Luke showing him milk a dinasaur creature that did nothing but to humiliate him then claim he lost it and tried to kill his nephew because he feared he would turn to the dark side when Vader the emperor and the date of the Universe could not turn him but Ben could? Rey never gets trained but using a correspondence course is the strongest force user ever. She then destroys the other star wars films by destroying the Emperor herself and claims she is a Skywalker no she is a Palpantine so now it should be the Palpantine Saga. The sequel Trilogy and solo had many production issues director changes and cost overruns and after that they didn’t develop th characters and seemed to pick an agenda driven theme over a strong plot. Also Kathleen Kennedy has been stripped of creative control a year or two ago except for the upcoming Ackolyte tv series. It Jon Faverau and Dave Filoni who also made clone wars and Rebels who deserve all the credit. Disney needs to decide who is in control of Lucas Film Jon and Dave or Kathleen Kennedy who has lost disney tons of money not even to mention you revenues. Most Star Wars fans are waiting because until Luvasfilms course is defined it can change back and it’s hard to fully buy into it until Kathleen Kennedy is removed
Not even to mention Galaxys Edges terrible decision outside of cheque and th Melennium Falcon has Nothing about th original or prequel trilogies. Here is a hint people go to movie theme parks to see movie history they care about. Like the Cantina, Tatooine, the death Star, Endor. How about Darth Vader? Kathleen Kennedy and her people had a big hand in not including these things in Galaxys edge and before the pandemic sales to galaxy quest were poor at best. I could talk alot more but I think you get my idea Kathleen Kennedy Betrayed George Lucas and the fans saying I am trying to get the future fans. Star wars fans are all ages and you can segment them. She should have took Yoda’s advice ” always looking at the future, adventure… Never his mind on where he was, what he was doing” I am out.
. A Jedi seeks not these things never his mind and on
She had nothing to do creatively with The Mandalorian, and we see the result. She has made a career riding on the coattails of transcendent producers and directors.
Yep, thanks to the failure of Solo (which made less money then it cost Disney), Disney essentially threatened Kennedy, and in turn she stepped back and hasn’t had any real creative control over the last few works released since 2018. This in turn led to the success of The Mandalorian seasons 1 and 2, as well as the success of The Clone Wars season 7, which in turn put Kennedy in a box where if she tries to interfere, Disney WILL step in and tell her no. With how profitable Star Wars has been under Favreau and Filoni, Kennedy has no real say with those two and if she were to try and say no to any new works they wish to do, Disney again will step in and deal with her.
Author be like, “Yeah, Disney bought Lucasfilm. And, well, she did do something with it! That’s good, right? And it turned a profit! So cut her some slack!” As if 1) Disney wouldn’t have bought Lucasfilm without her and 2) no one else could do ANYTHING with the keys to Star Wars handed to them except her and 3) Star Wars, in name alone, wasn’t already turning out huge profits without a movie in over a decade.
Oh, and 4) anything with Star Wars slapped on the side of it was better than no Star Wars at all.
I’m willing to see the good in what she’s done, but so far no one has done very much to convince me so, least of all, perhaps, this article. Show me numbers, and I don’t wanna hear about the money; it would have made it no matter if a 12 year old was running the biz. Let’s talk audience reception and disect its message, let’s judge it by its originality. But sadly, outside of TLJ, which has a better audience score than major media reports, and being so-happened-ly adjacent to the tv series, she has nothing to show for herself for what SHE has done to make new Star Wars great, except for being able to sign her name on the paperwork, and she likely hasn’t even done that by herself. Show me how she’s dedicated her creative energy to this franchise, and has contributed something meaningful, because anyone can communicate the word “yes” and push papers. Show me why she’s been a real positive.
That’s what the critics are asking. That’s what the fans are asking. And so far, no one has a good answer.
I hope she sees this bro
How much are they paying you to lie like this??? I can’t belive how you manipulated the info in this article to try and clean all her mistakes, dishonest people like you shouldn’t be allow to write articles
Kathleen Kennedy hasn’t a clue about star wars, she created a sequel trilogy without a story, each director made it up as it went along.
The Force Awakens did well because it was the first film in many years, after this the films have been very poor, clone wars season 7 and the mandalorian has nothing to do with kathleen kennedy, as Head of lucas film she has the right to put her name as executive producer, but she’s been riding off other people’s success for many years
She should be fired, she lied to George lucas she would protect the charectors
Killed of Han Solo, made him out tno be a bad dad and loser
Killed of Luke Skywalker, made to look like a hermit
“Help us obi wan filloni,you’re our only hope”
Dave filoni deserves credit for the clone wars and the mandalorian HE WROTE THEM BOTH, Kathleen Kennedy’s decisions when it came to the sequel series led to a disaster and that’s why dave filoni and jon favro are fixing them and DAVE FILONI should replace her
The Mandalorian may have saved Star Wars, but Kathleen Kennedy deserves no credit for it!
Hunter Bolding u a sequel fan or something cuz pretty much all I see is that she fucked up Star Wars and she deserves to be fired. And she is the reason why the sequels fucked up!
At least she didn’t bring back Jar-Jar! Remember he was created by your God, George Lucas!
So was she.. Lol
To the author of this article… GOOD GRIEF!
Will not say anything bad about ms. Kennedy, since many before me have done such a nice job. I just want to thank Dave and Jon for saving my beloved Star Wars!
What an absurd article. Either this is Disney/Lucasfilm propaganda or a manifestation of actual delusion…Regardless, giving KK credit because all these things happened “under her” rather than “in spite of her” is about as astute an assessment as a mule can make in a trigonometry class. Despite what the author is attempting to postulate — that KK isn’t so bad because she hasn’t completely run the franchise into the ground according to financial profits — she’s actively sabotaged a plot 40 years in the making, attempted to alienate the guy whose name is probably on the building you walk into every day, turned the majority of a fervently devoted fanbase against her, and, subsequently realized that “holy shit, maybe the fans matter”. She’s come to the realization that maybe films mean something to people and they aren’t interested if your school project “ticks the boxes”. Luckily, Disney doesn’t play that shit, they’re all about profits. “You can do whatever you want until you start costing us money.” The backlash from the sequels was too massive to let her keep the keys to the kingdom. It’s obvious Disney recognizes this and has been gradually pulling her away from having creative input going forward. Favreau and Filoni deserve all the credit and I’m so excited to see where they take the Universe going forward.
Funny how when you search out
“Kathleen Kennedy is awful ”
…articles like this blast your first hit in a search.
this article reads like being told it’s warm summer rain on our faces but we can clearly taste the piss.
Except she’s not good for Star Wars. The things that were successful in Star Wars are things she had no control over and had very little involvement in (Clone Wars season 7 and The Mandalorian). What’s interesting about these is that since Favreau and Filoni have proven very successful for Disney, Kennedy actually has less say when it comes to these two and cannot interfere with their work BECAUSE they make so much money for Disney through the shows getting more subs for Disney+ AND the amount of merch these shows are selling. This in turn means that if Kennedy were to try and do what she did with the films, Disney would very likely step in and tell her outright that no, she cannot do that and if she tries, will have to face consequences. This is the one thing Disney cares about, and that’s how much money they make of media and in turn merch sales. We also saw the removal of Kennedy’s power after Solo failed, because it was revealed she had very little involvement with SWs from 2018-2020, the years the Mandalorian and Clone Wars season 7 were worked on and released, showing Disney further that she’s a problem. Its also why because of how The Mandalorian is doing, Disney may demand that the sequels be removed from canon so as to give Favreau and Filoni even more leeway and power over Star Wars in the coming years.
Rey Palpatine trilogy was the worst trilogy ever. Kennedy destroyed Star Wars worst than Thanos. Horses charging a Star Destroyer? (Ohh that was JJ Abrams!) Gen Organa flying in space. Destroying the Jedi Order and reviving Palpatine…it was so ridiculous. Thank the Maker we had the Mandalorian a true Star Wars sequel who showed respect to the original material. I really dont mind Rey and Kylo appearing but this time as the Solo twins.
Kathleen Kennedy is terrible! She showed no respect to the original material. She should be fired! The author of this article is terrible too. He just pointed nuances on why Kathleen Kennedy ahould actually be fired. In fact, can the website hire a new author and replaced JJ? Many are more worthy.
I see someone licking boots with extra sh*t on it. She was and is the worst thing to happen to star wars. I completely stopped paying attention to it after I heard what they did after TFA. The only reason I got into Mando is because of Jon and Dave. They did really good with the Clone Wars and Rebel that I let them slightly pull me back in. Happy I took that leap because Mando is only good think live action wise that’s com out in the last couple of years. (Rogue one was actually ok.)
Did Kathleen Kennedy write this?
Horrible take, and it’s laughable that the author thinks she deserves any credit for the mandalorian and the final season of clone wars, since she had no creative input to these at all, all she had to do was say “ok” which should hardly garner praise. On the other hand everything she has been a direct influence on has been a disaster. Her “impressive” resume of the past is mostly her mooching off the genius and success of those she was working with notably Lucas and Spielberg, remove those people from her resume and you are left with trash like Avatar the Last Airbender. The writer of this article must be a Disney shill or truly has no knowledge of Star Wars or the state of the fandom over the last decade.
This is a load. How much did Disney pay you to lie like this? She has a history of riding the coattails on others creations. What “SOLE” creative credit does she have worth a d***? Dave & John are the true reasons behind Star War’s success. You can publish bs articles like this and the Gen pop eats it up, but we true fans know the real deal.
What a crap article. KK is the worst. She must have dirt on someone to keep her job.
I do not agree.
This is dumbest article I’ve ever read. You’re taking credit from Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni who are actually saving Star Wars and giving it to someone who was taking the gutter. And wow one good show happened under her, I wonder how much she’s actually put into the show?
Starwars is doing better because Kathleen Kennedy was stripped of creative control. The exception being The Acolyte. In the real world executives get fired for those ‘kind of missteps and mistakes’. Then there is Hildago…
I have come to a conclusion, J.J. Abrams, Disney, and K.Kennedy do not hate the fans…they do not understand them or there love for star wars, or the pain they have cause die hard fans who have been fans over 40 years and they do not want to understand them. They do not understand Luke Skywalker or the love fans have for him. There goal was to rewrite star wars and make it there’s. They failed out of incompetence not hate. It was about putting there stamp on it. And while Social Justice Woke Warriors love it…they do not make up even 50 percent of the fans. There not fans, its why warner fails at doing DC…the people in charge are comic fans. It is why marvel excelled at there movies, Marvel loved the Characters and do there best not to destroy it. Disney has people there now who love it and I hope something good comes out of this
Kathleen is the greatest! Look at all she did for the Star Wars fanbase! So many new Star Wars stories!
>Conveniently leaves out the 3 massive ‘numeral’ movies from the latest sequel trilogy because they’re awful.
Excuse me? How much did she pay you to write this trash? Kathleen Kennedy has nothing to do with the Mandalorian. Kathleen Kennedy has nothing to do with the massive slate of new Star Wars shows. She’s been reduced to a figurehead since the departure of Bob Iger, as Favreau and Filoni have taken creative control, with George Lucas’s backing.
Whatever good she may have done could never overcome what she did to the sequel trilogy. It’s literally unforgivable.
The writer of this article has major delusion issues. If brains were dynamite, they wouldn’t blow their ears off. Kathleen and her little lucasfilm gang are so toxic towards starwars fans. She claimed she didn’t have any content to pull from when making the sequels, yet George Lucas gave her the story for 3 movies, which she bought off him, then put in the shredder. Utterly insulting. There are endless comics and deeper stories out there, aside from movies 1-6 that are loaded with content.
Jon and Dave deserve the credit for the accurate work they’ve done. NOT the agenda forcing, lying dirtbag, that is Kathleen.
Kathleen Kennedy remains the single biggest obstacle to Lucasfilms’ success. She is creatively bankrupt but managerially domineering…making every last success at Lucasfilms a miracle *in spite of* her.
this article makes an unsustainable defense of her, it’s well established that she hates the most successful Star Wars elements (including The Mandalorian), while the creatives behind those elements chafe under her…and fan hatred of her continuously intensifies. that’s not going to change.
Mr. Goodman, what are you smoking? I need to stay away from it. Kathleen Kennedy cares only about pushing her own flawed personal agenda as opposed to good storytelling. You, my friend, are a Schill
Goodman my guy you need to take a step back fro whatever you are smoking tat told you to stop being a lawyer and join this trade. If you look at the comments above me for evidence
The Clone Wars season 7, being some of the best storytelling of The Clone Wars, apart from the siege of Mandalore the rest was just a bunch of filler put in to make it long enough to market it. And let us not forget a crucial fact about The Clone Wars. It was Disney who cancelled it in the first place. And about the new stuff that is coming out as well as The Mandalorian. When you are trying to make good content you need to set a reasonable space between them, which Disney it seems is trying to shove a lot of fan service in way too quickly, which is one of the faults of the sequel trilogy. These decisions lie at the top, stuff like release dates, ideas and directors and who is at the top. Kathleen Kennedy
Like John said what are you smoking goodman? How do i dislike an article because clearly they need to invent one for this site after this.
ANY clone wars filler episodes on their own have more creative direction than Kathleen Kennedy. Shes an assistant who lucked into her job from the inside thanks to Spielberg. I feel bad for George he was duped by the real life palpatine. Also for bob Iger and Chapek only because KK has a Fembot army knife next to their throats if they decide to break free from her hostage situation thats burning Lucasfilm down financially.
Are you actually insane? Kathleen Kennedy had no creative oversight over the clone wars season seven and just because she was in charge while it happened does not mean she’s souley responsible for its upbringing while creators like Dave Filoni embraced and made great use of those characters years and years before she graced big time film, she has left a stain on the star wars name and so pablo hidalgo as well. It’s ridiculous how any star wars fan should be completely fine with a big box studio preferring to check boxes instead of make compelling and non contracting stories
Excellent article. The toxic comments from “fans” continue to provide the tastiest abundance of salty tears as they throw their impotent hissy fits and regurgitate YouTube troll nonsense.
Thank goodness Kennedy knows how to recover from unfortunate missteps and continues guiding LucasFilm into future successes with the likes of Favreau, Filoni, Jenkins, Waititi, and possibly even get friend & mentor George Lucas. Smart & effective.
Fans ($$$$) >Kathleen Kennedy & your feelings
Thanks, Walt Disney
Those fans bitching about KK just don’t know how film works. Producing is not same as writing the screenplay or being the showrunner. Producing is being in charge of the budget and greenlighting the project. I mean KK brought Favreau and Filoni on board for The Mandalorian just like she brought Abrams (The Force Awakens, The Rise Of Skywalker), Johnson (The Last Jedi), Howard (Solo), Edwards (Rogue One), Filoni (Clone Wars Season 7, Rebels). That is not to deny that she has made missteps along the way like hiring directors she eventually fired due to creative differences like Treverrow for ROS and Phil Lord and Chris Miller for Solo. Not to mention the fact that although she split the fanbase down the middle simply due to skyhigh expectations, she still managed to recoup the 4.5 billion dollar sale it bought from Lucas in 2012 with Force Awakens grossing 2.068 blllion, The Last Jedi grossing 1.3 billion, Rogue One grossing 1.056 billion, ROS grossing 1.074 billion and Solo becoming one of the highest grossing films domestically of that year (2018). All these are simply overlooked by the ‘fans’ to justify their hatred for KK who happens to be a woman and revived Star Wars. I mean seriously?! Everyone is bitching about her but not about Kevin Feige? He also made mistakes like she did with regards to firing directors. Patty Jenkins was supposed to direct The Dark World after Kenneth Branagh left but ended up being replaced by Aaron Taylor. We all know how that movie went. It was probably the worst MCU film and received mixed reviews. Edgar Wright was supposed to direct Ant Man but left due to creative differences and was replaced by Peyton Reed which I might add the latter was also brought on board to do the spectacular finale of the Mandalorian Season 2 (The Rescue). The difference? People would be saying ‘ohh Filoni brought Reed on board, nothing to do with KK’ compared to ‘Really? I didn’t know Edgar Wright left Ant Man due to creative differences with Feige. Feige should replace KK at Lucasfilm’. Guys both Feige and Kennedy brought Reed on to direct Ant Man and The Rescue and while both were very good i might add the latter blew everything out of the water with one of the best episodes in TV history. Ant Man was ok. Nobody wants to mention this either because they don’t like strong women or harbor super sky high expectations for Star Wars as compared to lower but still high expectations for Marvel. Unbiased view and facts say that both Feige and Kennedy have reinvigorated both Marvel and Star Wars which is awesome for fans of both franchises.