It’s no secret Disney needed
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker to succeed. After what
Rian Johnson and their PR team did to the brand already, suffering under Kennedy’s identity politics the brand has gone from a right to print money to an outright money pit for Disney. Desperate for the movie to succeed they had it undergo months of re-shoots, spent untold hundreds of millions on its marketing and yet despite box office estimates dropping multiple times the movie has opened to a pitiable $176 million domestically, according to
Den of Geek, and outright
bombing in China.
What could have saved this movie was the Lucas cut that would have, according to rumors covered by
DoomCock, introduced a secret Skywalker who would rise. According to sources that proved to be 100% accurate the Lucas cut tested at over 80% with test audiences and was beloved by the non-woke segments of LucasFilms who were desperate to see that version of the movie see the light of day.
Unfortunately Kathline Kennedy had the final say in which cut of the movie would be greenlit for distribution and she chose what was dubbed the “J.J. Iger cut”. As a result, internally she is being blamed for the failure of
Rise of Skywalker.
Blame for this fiasco does not lie solely at Kennedy’s feet. Iger himself foolishly wrote in his memoir how he chose the woke agenda over George Lucas’s wishes, as reported by
Bounding Into Comics. Resulting in Lucas feeling betrayed and even outright hating the new direction chosen for
Star Wars. Though this is purely speculatory, Iger’s motivations likely rested in his long known political ambitions, but now that
Star Wars has outright failed and Marvel has begun heading in the same direction those ambitions are done for.
Despite it being problematic to fire Kennedy as a result of the pervasive power of feminism and “me too” have given to women in Hollywood, she is still likely out the door. A source has confirmed to
We Got This Covered her termination is imminent.
“Disney wants Kathleen Kennedy gone from Lucasfilm and while it’s not set in stone just yet that she’s on her way out the door, from what we’ve been told, there’s a “95% chance” she won’t be with the company for much longer.”
In their coverage they conclude their source was unclear on who was going to replace Kennedy, but turning to
Midnight’s Edge the answer may have already been provided.
According to their sources the powers in charge of
The Mandalorian will be the one’s assuming control of LucasFilm post Kennedy. The power trio as they likely will soon be branded consists of Director/Writer Dave Filoni, series creator and writer Jon Favreau, and rounding out the group while still filling the gender quote is Supervisor of Live Action Development and Production Michelle Rejwan.
With Iger departing Disney in 2021, according to
USA Today, before the production of any other movies can commence it will be up in the air whether their assignment (if it occurs) will stick under whatever leadership assumes power at Disney thereafter.
Investors have already grown disenchanted with the
Star Wars franchise following the failure of Star Wars Land and decline in profitability of the movies with
Solo outright failing to turn a profit. A place
Rise of Skywalker could join as a result of the months of re-shoots the movie underwent and expansive and likely extremely expensive marketing campaign they engaged in.
How this will impact
Star Wars in the long term, and even Iger’s legacy at Disney will unfold in the coming years, but right now it isn’t looking good for Kennedy.