Kathleen Kennedy: Mission Accomplished

For those who don't know, Kathleen Kennedy has headed Lucas Film and the Star Wars franchise since Disney acquired the company and the IP from George Lucas. But if one were to argue that her sole mission has been to destroy the Star Wars brand, you would be hard pressed to find evidence otherwise. Kenney has pushed the whole "the Force is Female" project, while supporting projects whose primary purpose seems to alienate fans. Some of her infamous acts include:

• Her assertion that "the Force is Female"--that is, that male characters and male fans were no longer welcome. Something echoed by other producers, directors, and actors and actresses in the franchise.
• Killing off or emasculating popular male characters: turning Han Solo into a dead beat dad before he was killed by his estranged emo son; revealing that Luke Skywalker had also become a bitter, selfish old man before killing him off; turning the Mandalorian into a secondary character in his own show; making Obi Wan Kenobe into an incompetent and coward who was outclassed by little-girl Princess Lea; and killing off the entire Skywalker line.
• Firing Gina Carano--a very popular actress in the Mandoloria series--because, while the force may be female, that doesn't include conservative females.
• And an endless stream of Mary Sue/girl boss characters.

     The most recent abomination to come from the Star Wars franchise was the streaming series The Acolyte--one of Kennedy's pet projects that dialed the DEI to eleven--and wound up with an audience score of only 19% on Rotten Tomatoes. Which, when you consider the weighting and bias in favor of a film or show, is the equivalent of 0. Other projects outside of the Star Wars franchise have also flopped under her leadership. For instance, the streaming series Willow was so bad that Disney pulled it from its catalogue so no one can ever see it again. And she produced Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which bombed at the box office, losing $134 million (although even this figure probably understates the full amount of the loss suffered by Disney).

    But now, after Musk said mean things about her turning the Star Wars franchise woke, Kennedy has announced that she will step down later this year and retire. The article relates:

    Elon Musk had last year attacked the Lucasfilm boss for pushing what he called a 'woke' agenda in The Acolyte.

    Kennedy acknowledged the criticism of Star Wars' direction in November, telling the New York Times that 'women who step into Star Wars struggle' with the expectation.

    'Because of the fan base being so male-dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal,' she said. 

     'My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people. That's an easy decision for me.'

And it shows by the destruction of the legacy white male heroes and the lack of any new white male heroes. 

    But she won't be exiting without leaving at least one more turd. According to the article, Lucasfilm is will be releasing a new Star Wars film entitled Star Wars: New Jedi Order which "is set after the most recent Star Wars sequel, 2019's The Rise of Skywalker, and will be centered on Daisy Ridley's character Rey." 

    Two-time Oscar winner Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, set to become the first woman and person of color to direct a feature film for the franchise, doubled down on the franchise's direction, saying it was 'about time' a woman shaped a Star Wars film.

    'I like to make men uncomfortable. I enjoy making men uncomfortable,' she said during a panel, which she participated in after winning the Oscar for a documentary about acid attacks against Pakistani women.

    'It is important to be able to look into the eyes of a man and say, I am here, and recognize that, and recognize that I am working to bring something that makes you uncomfortable, and it should make you uncomfortable,' she added.

It shouldn't be hard to predict how this will turn out: Obaid-Chinoy directed three episodes of the 2022 Ms. Marvel series which fared poorly on Disney+ and when introduced on ABC, was a "huge failure for network TV and suffered the worst ratings in the timeslot and the worst ratings of any Marvel show on ABC."