As of March 3, 2025, the galaxy far, far away is abuzz: Kathleen Kennedy’s 13-year reign as Lucasfilm president is reportedly winding down by year’s end. Taking over in 2012 after Disney’s $4 billion acquisition of the studio; Kennedy, a veteran producer of hits like E.T. and Jurassic Park, was entrusted with the beloved Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises. What followed at Lucasfilm was a turbulent era of one or two dazzling highs, a great many crushing lows, and a fractured fandom that no longer is willing to spend money on the studio's franchises. For many, her exit marks the close of a chapter plagued by laziness, missteps, and ideological overreach. However, her departure also sparks hope for a new era at Lucasfilm refocused on storytelling over preaching. Let’s dissect her failures and peer into a promising future.

The Failures: A Galaxy of Missed Chances

The Sequel Trilogy: A Disjointed Mess

The Star Wars sequel trilogy: The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017), and The Rise of Skywalker (2019) started well enough but quickly fell apart. The Force Awakens raked in over $2 billion, leaning on nostalgia, but critics like Kevin Tracy and others, including those at Forbes noted its excessive reliance on A New Hope’s blueprint. As you'll recall, Kevin Tracy didn't like the film, feeling like it was a high paced copy of the original film that failed to do anything new in either its storytelling or filmmaking; which is part of what made the first six Star Wars films a spectacle to watch.

The Last Jedi split fans with its bold swings from the beginning with Luke tossing his lightsaber and spending the entire movie brooding without reason. Rian Johnson essentially killed the heroic version of Luke Skywalker everyone went to the movies to see, and when he finally rediscovers himself and performs the greatest Force trick ever and leaves everyone wildly excited for the third movie... Luke actually dies without any reason whatsoever. The choice was made even more perplexing by the untimely death of Carrie Fisher during production. If you were going to kill off a character, kill off the one who is played by an actor who actually died! Kevin Tracy was worried about the health of Star Wars after the uninspired Episode 7; but after The Last Jedi, he said he watched his beloved franchise die.

If the franchise got sick and in Episode 7 and died in Episode 8, The Rise of Skywalker was a crappy funeral organized by the people that killed the Star Wars franchise. The last Star Wars film to enter theaters felt like a panicked course correction... because it was. The Ringer pinned the trilogy’s lack of cohesion on Kennedy’s hands-off approach, letting directors like J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson pull in opposite directions without a unified plan.

Spinoff Stumbles: Solo and Beyond

Star WarsSpinoffs showed promise but faltered quickly under Kennedy's failed leadership. Rogue One (2016) was a gritty win and gave me great hope for the future of the Star Wars franchise. Yet, just two years later, Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) crashed after changing directors mid-film, pausing production for the lead actor to take acting classes, and months of delayed releases as movie went several rounds of expensive reshoots, earning just $393 million against a $275 million budget. As mentioned, the messy production swap from Phil Lord and Chris Miller to Ron Howard contributed a lot to the hefty price tag; which does not include the massive marketing budget. JJ Goodman at That Hash Tag Show said, "It’s almost as if Kennedy and Lucasfilm wanted Solo to fail..."

Since the failure of Solo, fans have lost count of all the canceled projects that have been announced since, including David Benioff and D.B. Weiss’s fizzled out trilogy. This alone is enough to justify the fans' skeptical attitude of Kathleen Kennedy’s vision.

Disney+ Debacles: Quantity Over Quality

Disney+ brought live action Star Wars to TV sets, fulfilling a long held ambition for George Lucas (we won't talk about the Christmas Special), but results have been mixed at best. The Mandalorian, helmed by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, was a smash hit. 2022's Andor earned the love of Kevin Tracy and other Star Wars fans. Unfortunately, the much anticipated The Book of Boba Fett stumbled with aimless and disjointed plots split up by Season 2.5 of The Mandalorian; which completely undid the amazing end of Season 2 of that show. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan Kenobi felt underwhelming and bafflingly chose to team Obi-Wan Kenobi with Princess Leia and abandoning Luke Skywalker in the process, even though there are several suggestions in the original trilogy that Luke went on some adventures with Obi Wan. Finally, The Acolyte was canceled after one $180 million season drew ire for prioritizing messaging over lore. As observed by The OutKick's Ian Miller, "Under Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, the vast majority of recent releases have prioritized the political orientation and specific progressive identity credentials over quality, track record and creativity."

Indiana Jones: Dialing Down a Legend

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) was a costly misfire, grossing $384 million against a $300 million budget, not including marketing costs. Fans, per IGN, griped about its convoluted story and Indy’s reduced role, seeing it as Kathleen Kennedy chasing trends instead of honoring the franchise’s roots. And, if Lucasfilm was going to digitally de-age Harrison Ford, the film to do it for was Solo!

The “Woke” Backlash

Kennedy’s tenure often drew flak for pushing woke progressive ideals over narrative depth. Rey’s meteoric rise with no character development sparked “Mary Sue” debates and The Acolyte’s entire cast and crew and themes felt forced to some, as Comic Book Movie noted. This perception deepened fandom rifts and destroyed Lucasfilm’s image among lifelong fans.

A defining moment was Gina Carano’s 2021 firing from The Mandalorian and the now-cancelled Rangers of the New Republic. After speaking out against the far-left's assault on Freedom of Speech, Lucasfilm cut ties with Gina Carano, calling her views "abhorrent". Her Elon Musk-backed lawsuit against Disney and Lucasfilm, now headed for a September 2025 trial, could expose internal emails during discovery and perhaps shed light on Kennedy’s "woke" leanings or her hand in the decision. Some, like That Park Place, speculate this legal heat might have something to do with Kennedy’s exit, suggesting it is a move to sidestep embarrassment. New leadership at Lucasfilm in the foreseeable future could result in Disney and their embattled studio settling with Gina Carano to avoid discovery, or even rehiring her for a second attempt at Rangers of the New Republic to refocus on fan goodwill over ideology.

The Future: A Return to Roots

Upcoming works like The Mandalorian and Grogu (2026), James Mangold’s Dawn of the Jedi, and a Rey-centered film New Jedi Order hold potential if they prioritize tight stories over preaching and find a way to undo the mistakes of the Disney Trilogy using the World Between Worlds. For Star Wars, it's time to return to a back-to-basics approach—practical effects when possible, lived-in worlds, and stakes that resonate and aren't copy-pasted from other successful movies or franchises. For Indiana Jones, better writing is all it will take to revive its spirit, as we saw in the video game Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. We just need time for the franchise to breathe from it's movie theater failures before trying again. This may necessitate a reboot with a leaner, more gritty, but still fun-filled films.

A New Hope?

Kennedy delivered Rogue One, and The Mandalorian's first two seasons, and Andor, but her era’s flops and controversies dimmed Lucasfilm’s luster. Her exit isn’t a cure-all, but it’s a chance to ditch the woke ideology both on screen and behind the scenes and wield the Force with purpose other than advancing a political agenda. The next chapter awaits for a galaxy far, far away.