After a decade-plus of making new Star Wars projects, both Disney and Lucasfilm are switching things up in a big way, with new leaders stepping into roles at both companies. Most pertinently, the Academy Award-nominated producer of most of Steven Spielberg’s best movies, Kathleen Kennedy, is stepping down from running Lucasfilm, and being replaced by the dynamic duo of Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan.
While this has the opportunity to bring about real change and a sense of reinvigoration for the struggling franchise, the comments made during Kennedy’s exit interview, as they pertain to the new Star Wars projects that are in development, don’t exactly fan the flames of the kind of thinking.
Over the past several years, Lucasfilm has become somewhat infamous for announcing a glut of projects, only to then turn around and fail to actually see those projects through to fruition. For instance, over a dozen live-action Star Wars films have been announced in one form or another since the release of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s release in 2019, but not a single one of them has actually made it to completion as of yet. In her exit interview with Deadline, Kennedy outlined why certain projects are moving forward and why others aren’t, and it highlights a central problem with Lucasfilm under Disney’s rule: they’re incredibly averse to taking risks.
The two most notable examples of Kennedy illustrating this principle in the interview come in the form of her comments on Steven Soderbergh’s The Hunt for Ben Solo script and James Mangold and Beau Willimon’s preliminary work on an announced Dawn of the Jedi film. The first of these Kennedy refers to as “great,” before elaborating that “anything is possible if someone is willing to take a risk.” The latter was a project that had been in active development for years, but has now had the brakes put on it according to Kennedy because it is “definitely breaking the mold.”
The fact that both of these projects, from acclaimed filmmakers that are passionate about working within the Star Wars universe and expanding its horizons in bold new directions, are on indefinite hold is immensely frustrating. As a whole, it paints an extremely unflattering picture of the Disney-owned Lucasfilm; a company that has become increasingly stagnant and insistent upon recycling ideas. In the wake of faux-culture war reactions, in which a small but incredibly vicious and vocal portion of fans online cried foul at some of the biggest swings of the franchise over the past ten years such as The Last Jedi, The Acolyte, or even Andor, it's clear that Disney wants Star Wars to be a safe bet. But by refusing to let the franchise grow in an organic way, the company is inadvertently suffocating it.
For proof of this, one need look no further than the absolute void of excitement surrounding the impending release of the first theatrically-released Star Wars film in seven years: The Mandalorian and Grogu.
On paper, this film is the safest bet imaginable; a feature-film follow-up to a successful Disney+ streaming series starring one of the most meme-able characters the franchise has ever created. On top of this, it was filmed for a budget of less than half of what nearly every other Disney Lucasfilm Star Wars film has cost, and was even produced in California to capitalize on extensive tax credits. In short, in every way possible, The Mandalorian and Grogu is bargain bin Star Wars; a film driven not by passion but by spreadsheets and fiscal policies.
As Lucasfilm and Disney begin this new era, I hope that they realize sooner rather than later that capitulating to the ravenous, inconsistent, and outright offensive demands of a small portion of online fans has painted them into a corner from which there is no escape. If Disney is going to continue vetoing any and every idea that dares to dream beyond the confines of pre-treaded ground in this galaxy far, far away, then the franchise is doomed to collapse in on itself.