For a few years now, there have been a very vocal portion of the Star Wars fandom who has demanded Disney fire Kathleen Kennedy from her role as the current president of Lucasfilm.
However, during The Walt Disney Company’s 2021 Annual Meeting of Shareholders, Disney CEO Bob Chapek voiced his feelings about Kennedy.
Disney happy with Star Wars president
During the Meeting of Shareholders, all stockholders can ask questions. One Texas stockholder asked if Disney was planning to fire Kennedy and put Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau in charge of Lucasfilm.
Chapek said that there was no change coming at Lucasfilm.
“We look forward to having Kathy directing the activities of the entire Lucasfilm operation for many years to come,” Chapek said.
This might make some Star Wars fans unhappy, but many of them don’t even understand how things work at Lucasfilm.
What has Kathleen Kennedy done at Star Wars?
When it comes to fan complaints about Kathleen Kennedy, it mostly stems from her allowing directors to bring in female Jedi warriors and allowing an Asian female to serve as an X-Wing pilot.
On top of that, some fans blame her for the clashes with some directors fired from projects (Gareth Edwards, Josh Trank, Chris Miller, and Phil Lord).
Many also blame her for the fact that they personally didn’t like Star Wars: The Last Jedi. That movie is rated 90-percent fresh by critics and made $1.3 billion at the box office, and those numbers overshadow online complaints in the eyes of a business like Disney.
The fact that the stockholder asked if Disney would put Jon Favreau in charge of Lucasfilm shows the disconnect between the online trolls and reality. Kathleen Kennedy was the person behind The Mandalorian and was Favreau’s boss throughout the making of the series.
Favreau ran the series, but to think that Kennedy had nothing to do with it means a person does not understand how shows and movies are made.
Kathleen Kennedy has worked on over 60 films and has been part of eight Oscar nominations. The films she worked on made over $11 billion worldwide and she has worked on three of the highest-grossing films in cinema history.
As a producer, only Steven Spielberg and Kevin Feige have made more money on their movies than she has.
As long as Kathleen Kennedy is making Disney money, they won’t fire her just because some vocal fans don’t believe females should play powerful roles in movies, and because loud fans online vocally dislike a movie.
Parenthetically, KK has established a veritable 0 in merchandise sales, which historically is the main driving force for Star Wars.
1.3 billion was a disaster. The previous film made over 2 billion.
KK could only give notes to F.
The last jedi was hated by fans not because of an asian actress or female jedi. The movie before had a female lead and did much better.
Look to sports. when a general manager speaks out for a coach, the coach will be fired soon.
KK has a contract that is about to expire. If they are so happy with her, why haven\t they extended her contract?
author of this article gave a few facts, but upon further review, the guy is a moron.
Article is tone deff and evidence of someone living in a bubble. This is what happens when people never step out of their echo chambers. Its also laughable to call yourselves diverse and inclusive when the ONLY people you’ll listen to or give any credit to are those that agree with you. Everyone else are clumped into the categories of stupid, ignorant, evil, nazis, and any phobic slur you can think of. Pathetic. As a women I’ve loved to see strong female roles like Ripley in Aliens. But there is a HUGE difference between a natural progression and storyline and those that are CLEARLY forced. I hate what KK has done to a universe I grew up with and I hope she gets ceremoniously sacked! Her treatment of Gina was the last straw for me. Keep your damn social and political crap outta my movies!