“Be bold.”
That was the sole instruction Disney chief Bob Iger gave to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as Disney bought the production company with the intention of relaunching the Star Wars franchise as a theatrical concern back in 2012.
And with Kennedy now stepping down from her position – with Lucasfilm Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni and Executive Vice President Lynwen Brennan stepping up to jointly take on her duties – it seems likely that any look back at her tenure will be done with the question of that potential boldness in mind.
The Boldness Of Modern STAR WARS
Looking at the roster of films and television series that came into being during the Kennedy-era, many of the creative swings that Lucasfilm took with Star Wars were indeed bold, if at times controversial.
Let’s start with the Sequel Trilogy. A trio of films that were meant to launch this bold new era of Star Wars tale-telling wound up to be a bit of a mixed bag. The first, Episode VI – The Force Awakens, certainly energized both die hard and casual fans alike, bringing in over $2 billion at the worldwide box office. Unfortunately, director J. J. Abrams “mystery box” style of storytelling wound actually hamstring the remaining two films.
Looper director Rian Johnson was called in for Episode VIII – The Last Jedi and picking up the plot threads Abrams left him with managed to weave a story that moved away from The Force Awakens nostalgia and into newer and deeper thematic territory. Some fans didn’t like and got very loud on social media about it. Still the film would go on make just over $1.3 billion at the box office.
And then came Abrams’ return for Episode IX – The Rise Of Skywalker. A hot mess of a film that still managed to find some fans, it eked out just over a $1 billion in ticket sales worldwide.
(I am hesitant to blame Abrams entirely for Rise of Skywalker being the mess it is. He stepped in at the last minute to completely overhaul the film’s screenplay following the departure of original writer/director Colin Treverrow, who felt he could not adapt his plans enough to compensate for the untimely death of star Carrie Fisher. However, there are still plenty of poor storytelling choices made by Abrams that are his alone to own.)
In the off years between the main line “Skywalker Saga” films, Lucasfilm began a series of what would be one-ff spin-off films. The first, Rogue One, had a bit of a troubled production history, but what eventually made it to the big screen was considered a fairly strong start for the “Star Wars Story” line. Unfortunately, the next installment – Solo, a look at the early days of the franchise’s iconic smuggler – had an equally, if not more so, troubled production, and the end result did not perform well at the box office.
But the return of Star Wars wasn’t just in terms of theatrical films. Disney had a new streaming service launching and it needed some big marquee names to draw in subscribers, and Star Wars was about as big a name as they had. Lucasfilm planned out a slate of live action and animated series that would expand the Star Wars galaxy while feeding what they assumed was fans’ insatiable hunger for more.
Launching a television series set between the Original and Sequel trilogies and featuring all new characters could have been seen as a bold, if risky, move. In retrospect, The Mandaolrian is seen as a bold bet that paid off. But the reception to many of the other Disney+ live action fare runs the gamut. Andor was nearly universally lauded as being some of the best that the franchise has offered up in its nearly five-decade existence.
On the other end of the spectrum was The Acolyte, a show that set up some mysteries of galactic intrigue a century before any of the more familiar Star Wars timeline. But amid the noisy complaints from a small but vocal group of fans about “woke” Star Wars, the fact that the show was setting up some interesting questions and storylines that looked as if they would ultimately play out in creating the circumstances that would cause the Republic’s fall into despotic fascism seen in the Prequel Trilogies.
They weren’t all home runs. Some were barely base hits, while one or two are seen as complete strike outs. Which ones depends on which fan you asked. But they were all bold swings for the fence.
The Opposition To Bold
But has Kennedy been as bold as the Star Wars output during her tenure was? One thing that comes out of Kennedy’s “Exit Interview” with Deadline following the announcement of her departure is the feeling that Kennedy has certainly tried to heed that advice, only to be blocked by perhaps Iger himself. She mentions a number of projects that the studio had been developing that have not gone into production. Was Iger the final stumbling block? We know this for a fact for at least one potential film project, The Hunt For Ben Solo.
As has been previously reported on, The Hunt For Ben Solo started as an idea between Ben/Kylo Ren actor Adam Driver and director Steven Soderbergh, with Scott Z. Burns being brought in to flesh it out into a screenplay. From all accounts, the story take was indeed bold, with Kennedy describing at as “just great.” Kennedy, Filnoi and Lucasfilm vice-president Carrie Beck were all on board for getting the film into production.
The hitch? Iger and Disney Entertainment co-chair Alan Bergman, the duo ultimately responsible for turning on the money faucet to make a movie. The pair could not understand how the film would bring back the character after his death in Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker. And rather than just trust the bold instincts of Kennedy and her crew, they vetoed the project.
And while she does not outright say it, Kennedy seems to be at least hinting that the reason for some announced projects never getting out of development is because thy met the same resistance. James Mangold and Beau Willimon’s Dawn of the Jedi project? “[A]n incredible script, but it is definitely breaking the mold and it’s on hold.” Taika Waititi’s project she describes as “hilarious and great. It’s not just my decision.”
The Future
It remains to be seen if Filoni and Brennan will meet with the same headwinds that Kennedy faced in getting projects into production. Iger is currently contracted with Disney through the end of this year and he he is not expected to continue on afterwards. Bergman is one of the four Disney execs who are being seen as a potential heir to Iger’s throne. If Bergman does become the new CEO, will he continue to be as risk adverse as he was in conjunction with Iger or will he be more willing to take a chance?
“Anything’s a possibility if somebody’s willing to take a risk,” Kennedy stated when talking about the possible future of The Hunt For Ben Solo, Dawn of the Jedi and Taika Waititi’s untitled project. The studio already has The Mandalorian And Grogu film set for release later this year, with another film, Starfighter, set for 2027. But beyond that, who knows?
Hopefully, the new regime at Lucasfilm can inspire whomever is the final one to approve some of these potential Star Wars films to go into production to be bold themselves.
