I LOL at the fact that you gave me the opportunity to be "sad face" about her not really going away after dying.
Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down
- Thread starter joberg
- Start date
jts1031
Sr Member
And as we know with Star Wars, no one is ever really gone...
joberg
Legendary Member
...and with her stock option, she's not going to be singing the Blues at a street corner anytime soon
Jaitea
Master Member
It’s funny you posted that, just watched a video of Prop Store showing off Chewies Bowcaster, & he just talks about the Star Wars Trilogy
J
HeartBlade
Sr Member
Agree. I wouldnt say its a guarantee that hardcore Star Wars fans will be back unless they consistently make good new stuff and even then, it may already be too late. How many people were actually excited about the Netflix Terminator anime? I think the last time Terminator fans were excited for a project was Dark Fate because Cameron was coming back and then it was hated because it took a huge dump on the lore. I do honestly think Star Wars is at the same status now.
I think it would be in Disney's best interest to just loan out the IP to other companies to do something with it and make money doing nothing. The Jedi franchise series as well as the Battlefront series made EA and Disney good money. Ubisoft was a flop but that company itself is honestly in trouble. I think fans are more forgiving of lore changes in video games or non-movie/tv shows because the canon is "less valuable" in a different medium (no one talks about Boba fighting Vader with a saber in the comics or Starkiller's OP force powers as canon).
Its possible. While Lucas and Spielberg may have just made those comments in jest, its really the recipient who determines if its a joke or harassment and as a woman in film, Kennedy may have felt insulted by these talented men joking with her input. The sad fact is Kennedy is not a creative. She is a producer and is good at handling the logistics and boring stuff so the creatives can focus on creating. The problem is she definately does not like that given how involved she gets with projects (the Rey film has been undergoing rewrites because Kennedy gives back notes).
Wow. Finally. This might get me to re-up my Disney+.Okay, got some extra info about what's going on inside. Feel free to be skeptical; I am not.
Apparently, back in October, Iger told Kennedy that her contract wouldn't be renewed. She was given the choice to retire gracefully or he would tell the trades that she'd been removed. She chose to retire. Which is why we've seen some strange "lifetime achievement awards" and other pats on the back for her in recent months.
The reason the retirement wasn't announced back in October was because Disney was apparently concerned about what this news COMBINED with the election results would do to their stock price.
So now Iger apparently feels that with the White House's agenda in place, he can take her down without industry repercussions. Iger still has presidential aspirations of his own, so this syncs nicely for him, what with the pressure to reduce DEI measures and all.
So Iger had Favreau "leak" the retirement news this week.
I hear that the Lucasfilm office is strangely numb and quiet today, except to internally refer to Kennedy as "the Disney villain in human form" finally defeated. The remaining fear inside Lucasfilm is that fans have been burned too many times that they won't come back. So it's time to vote with our wallets and viewing numbers. We should reward the good and punish the bad.
(I'm just reporting what I believe to be facts above; I am not taking a political stance, so please don't jump on that bandwagon. I'm not inviting a discussion about White House policies or DEI.)
And if you haven't yet, please give Skeleton Crew a chance!
Bill
I am a Day One Star Wars kid 5/25/77, so the saga, good and bad, is a literal part of my life. I've endured the SW wasteland between 1983 and 1999, where we had some books and games, and we survived. This to me is good news.
SW may not be as sick as 'Terminator' but it's in the ballpark. The sheer size of SW is masking how sick it is.
As for whether it's is salvageable? IMO it's definitely still worth trying in 2025. But I'm not confident that Disney understands how bad the problem is yet. The company has a broader inability to make most of their projects work these days. SW is struggling for the same reasons as 'Captain America' and 'Snow White'.
Lightning
Master Member
My gut tells me that's she's had a front row seat to absolute masters of their craft making it look easy for decades. It's not unlikely that the lesson she took away from that is "How hard could it be?". Her data set is biased.
joberg
Legendary Member
Cephus
Master Member
There's a rumor going around out there that Disney has been trying to quietly sell off Star Wars for the past 7 months and can't find anyone willing to buy it. No idea if it's true, but I wouldn't be surprised. Nobody wants to touch Star Wars anymore. It's a dead property.
I've heard this too. Only rumors, though. That they were trying to to sell it to Apple. If that's true that would be awesome. I'm no Apple fanboy, but their TV division has a habit of hiring brilliant people and staying out of their way.
My guess is that if true, the asking price is probably astronomical. Which dovetails nicely with batguy's point above that Disney has no idea how bad their problem is.
If this is true.. George could make a killing…
Selling SW outright . . . man, I wouldn't pay Disney the same $4b that they bought it for 13 years ago.
But since when does Disney sell any franchise, ever?
IMO it's more likely that Disney just wants to subcontract the job of operating SW for a while.
Bob Iger may never understand what it would take to operate SW effectively. But he only needs to understand that his current company can't do it. That by itself is enough to make a businessman want to subcontract it.
Iger may also be thinking about dodging the blame. If it's dawned on him that SW is in for years of disappointing returns, he may want to put that hot potato under somebody else's roof so the stockholders don't point too many fingers at him about it. SW would still be his responsibility at the bottom line but at least he wouldn't have as much proximity to the trainwreck.
I'm just guessing though. I don't know how much the top stockholders would be grilling Iger directly on issues like this. Disney as a whole, it has a lot of irons in the fire. Many of them aren't under the heading of creative franchises at all. It's a mega-corporation.
But since when does Disney sell any franchise, ever?
IMO it's more likely that Disney just wants to subcontract the job of operating SW for a while.
Bob Iger may never understand what it would take to operate SW effectively. But he only needs to understand that his current company can't do it. That by itself is enough to make a businessman want to subcontract it.
Iger may also be thinking about dodging the blame. If it's dawned on him that SW is in for years of disappointing returns, he may want to put that hot potato under somebody else's roof so the stockholders don't point too many fingers at him about it. SW would still be his responsibility at the bottom line but at least he wouldn't have as much proximity to the trainwreck.
I'm just guessing though. I don't know how much the top stockholders would be grilling Iger directly on issues like this. Disney as a whole, it has a lot of irons in the fire. Many of them aren't under the heading of creative franchises at all. It's a mega-corporation.
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Lightning
Master Member
It's a bit of a lose-lose for him since if it succeeds it's both demonstrating that Disney's failure was management not IP, and all the money going to the subcontractor could have been going to Disney if they were better at their jobs.
Bob Iger has an excuse for the previous SW failures: "Lucas put Kennedy in charge and I couldn't fire her until now."
That's still Bob's fault in the longest view because he agreed to Lucas's terms back in 2012. But the decision to put Kennedy in charge seemed reasonable at the time.
I doubt his main concern is really dodging blame though. His primary one is probably just making the profits go up. If Disney cannot handle SW then at least he can sell the opportunity to let somebody else mess it up.
When he shopped it around 7 months ago (assuming that rumor is true) he was probably still thinking SW was a prized asset and there would be demand for it. I get the feeling he is years behind on realizing how damaged the asset is.
If he was paying more attention then he would have forced Kennedy out much earlier. Contract or not, I'm sure there were more drastic ways it could have been done. Her management has been sloppy in general so I'm guessing the paperwork was "sloppy" too. Hence the rumors about 'The Acolyte' having shady financing.
Cephus
Master Member
George doesn't want it back. He gave away most of the money the last time.
Cephus
Master Member
A lot of the top-end investors don't care about making money, they're investing so they can control what Disney says and does, not so they can make a profit.
Not sure how true it is but Critical Drinker said that Kevin Feige at one point tried to help them get SW back on track and KK shut him down. KF doesn't currently have the best track record, but I think Marvel as doing a lot better than SW. I think Marvel can still be turned around.
