Ever since Disney first acquired the rights to Star Wars and began creating new content set in a galaxy far, far away, many fans have increasingly viewed Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy as the biggest villain the franchise has ever seen, more so than Darth Vader or Palpatine.
Any time Star Wars is hit by a creative setback, filmmaker turnover or a delay, the fingers of blame are always pointed in Kennedy’s direction. While there’s nothing wrong with making that assumption when everyone knows sh*t only rolls downhill, there are a huge team of people involved in the decision-making process from conception to development, right through to filming and post-production.
Over the last few years we’ve been hearing rumors that Kennedy was on the way out, with the likes of Kevin Feige, Jon Favreau and even George Lucas touted as potential replacements, but tipster Mikey Sutton offers that her contract is poised to be extended well before it expires in October, which is sure to generate a reaction from certain sections of the internet.
Sutton’s explanation is perfectly in line with what we’ve been hearing all along, in that Star Wars is making billions of dollars on an annual basis, regardless of how people felt about The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker. Kennedy oversaw Episodes VII, IX and IX, as well as Rogue One and Solo, which combined to earn close to $6 billion at the box office.
She’s also behind the Disney Plus expansion that gave us The Mandalorian and a number of future streaming exclusives, so in the eyes of the bean counters at Disney she’s done nothing but make them money, which means you can’t really argue with her sticking around from the financial perspective of her track record.
