Disney’s Ongoing Star Wars Woes Show Need for New Leadership at LucasFilm

by Ray Keating

Commentary

DisneyBizJournal.com

January 24, 2020

As news and speculation spread across the internet about the Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi show being put on hold in an effort to get new writers and scripts, one has to wonder: What the heck is Kathleen Kennedy doing at Disney’s LucasFilm?

After all, this type of development is not exactly new during the Kennedy/Disney reign over Star Wars. During filming, Rogue One was re-written and re-shot. Solo: A Star Wars Story got a completely new director in the middle of production.

For good measure, while I certainly enjoyed Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, one has to admit that the two movies suffer from a certain lack of originality. And then there’s Star Wars: The Last Jedi, which amounted to a train wreck from story, character and Star Wars lore perspectives.

At the same time, though, there is a tradition of these kinds of challenges at LucasFilm, such as the long delays in getting the Star Wars prequels trilogy made, not to mention (to be generous) the uneven storytelling in those movies, as well as long delays in getting Indiana Jones movies made.

One has to wonder if Jon Favreau made the wonderful first season of The Mandalorian on Disney+ in spite of LucasFilm.

It’s kind of interesting in that the one thing you might have expected when Disney bought LucasFilm was that Star Wars, as well as Indiana Jones, would get a kind of kick in the pants. After all, Disney has a long history of producing good stories. You know, a big chunk of their business is making movies. Yet, here we are. 

The reign of Kathleen Kennedy at LucasFilm arguably has been one of delays, journeying off course and trying to get back on track, missed opportunities, and successes that, arguably, should have been bigger. It’s time for a new person or team to lead Disney’s LucasFilm – that understands both the business and creative sides of making movies and television shows. 

Maybe it’s time for Bob Iger to get Mr. Favreau on the line.

Ray Keating is the editor, publisher and economist for DisneyBizJournal.com, and author of The Disney Planner 2020: The TO DO List Solution and the Pastor Stephen Grant novels. He can be contacted at  raykeating@keatingreports.com.