The Disney-fied “Star Wars” franchise has been a major disappointment for many hardcore fans. Of course, enemy numero uno for these pissed off Lucasheads seems to be LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy. And so, pressure has been building up for Kennedy to steer the ship back to safe ground and regain the trust of many of the gone-rogue fans.
Suffice to say they won’t be happy that Kennedy has just signed a contract extension of three more years, which means that she will continue to oversee every Star Wars release until, at least, 2024.
The success of “The Mandalorian” may have saved her job. She should thank Jon Favreau for that as he was the main creative brains behind that show’s popularity.
Kennedy has shown a trend of getting into disagreements with her directors. So far, during her 7 year tenure as overseer of all things Star Wars, Kennedy has clashed with filmmakers on three separate films; Phil Lord and Chris Miller were fired during production of 'Solo: A Star Wars Story,' Colin Trevorrow was let go as director of 'Episode IX,' and Gareth Edwards, although he completed 'Rogue One' was rumored to have been replaced during reshoots by Tony Gilroy.
Safe for her working partner JJ Abrams, the one time Kennedy didn’t clash with a filmmaker, but went admirably along with him, was Rian Johnson, who ended up delivering the most controversial Star Wars film, “The Last Jedi.”