The Star Wars sequel trilogy is now two years gone, leaving behind a complicated legacy. Fans mostly seemed to think that the first film, J.J. Abrams’ The Force Awakens, was pretty good, even if it didn’t push any boundaries. They were far more split on Rian Johnson’s follow-up film The Last Jedi, which took the story is some very different directions. Abrams returned for the final film The Rise of Skywalker, which was divisive in its own right.
But there were some people who hated the new trilogy from the start. That includes Marcia Lucas, who worked as an editor on all three original Star Wars movies and who was married to creator George Lucas for over a decade. She was interviewed for J.W. Rinzler’s new book Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life, a biography of the famous producer; she also wrote the foreward, and she doesn’t mince her words when it comes to the Star Wars sequels.
That said, before we get into the critical stuff, Lucas did specify that she likes Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, who shepherded the movies onto the screen. “I like Kathleen. I always liked her,” Lucas said, as transcribed by The Direct. “She was full of beans. She was really smart and really bright. Really wonderful woman. And I liked her husband, Frank. I liked them a lot.”
"Now that she’s running Lucasfilm and making movies, it seems to me that Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams don’t have a clue about Star Wars. They don’t get it. And J.J. Abrams is writing these stories—when I saw that movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious. I was furious when they killed Han Solo. Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. I thought, You don’t get the Jedi story. You don’t get the magic of Star Wars."
Lucas had some thoughts about The Last Jedi as well: “You’re getting rid of Han Solo? And then at the end of this last one, The Last Jedi, they have Luke disintegrate. They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore. And they’re spitting out movies every year.”
Lucas also had some thoughts on Rey (Daisy Ridley) as a protagonist:
"And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is."
It sounds like Lucas made these comments before The Rise of Skywalker came out, since we did kinda-sorta find “how she got Jedi powers” in that one; we can only imagine what Lucas thought about that movie.
Lucas summed up her feelings like this: “It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Just terrible. Awful. You can quote me—‘J.J. Abrams, Kathy Kennedy—talk to me.’”
Marcia Lucas criticizes Rey, Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams over Star Wars sequels
Fans will surely find a lot of their dislike of the sequel trilogy reflected in Lucas’ comments. Personally, while I wasn’t wild about the movies, I didn’t care about any of the stuff Lucas complains about, expect the bit about them spitting out movies every year. Kill Han, kill Luke, sure, why not? And I don’t know why we need an explanation for how a character gets magic Force powers.
From where I was sitting, the first movie was just a retread of the original Star Wars, which…why? Then the second movie took things in a wildly different direction that, while interesting, didn’t fit with the first at all, and then the third tried to jerk things back and ended up being a tonal mishmash that pleased no one. Basically, it seems like no one planned out a story for the sequel trilogy ahead of time, something that Abrams has admitted.
And yet the sequel trilogy is beloved by millions of fans — in the end, opinions on movies are highly subjective, so enjoy and enjoy alike.
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