Despite the Disney Star Wars sequel trilogy having come to a… controversial end in 2019, the debate rages on, with Star Wars: A New Hope editor Marcia Lucas now offering her informed take. Spoiler alert, she hates them. While Lucas does compliment Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, she does not like what has been done to the Star Wars franchise under her leadership, heavily criticizing both Kennedy and director J.J. Abrams for killing beloved characters and not understanding the “magic” of a galaxy far, far away.
“I like Kathleen. I always liked her. She was full of beans. She was really smart and really bright. Really wonderful woman. And I liked her husband, Frank. I liked them a lot. Now that she’s running Lucasfilm and making movies, it seems to me that Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams don’t have a clue about ‘Star Wars.’ They don’t get it. And JJ Abrams is writing these stories – when I saw that movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious. I was furious when they killed Han Solo. Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. I thought, You don’t get the Jedi story. You don’t get the magic of ‘Star Wars.’ You’re getting rid of Han Solo?”
Now, it’s worth noting that Harrison Ford has long wanted for Han Solo to die, and likely would not have returned to the series had this not happened, but nonetheless Lucas was left furious when the iconic character met his end at the hands of his son, Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
For those unaware, Marcia Lucas is well-integrated into the world of Star Wars, having won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for her work on Star Wars: A New Hope. Lucas also edited Return of the Jedi, and worked on The Empire Strikes Back as an uncredited editor, as well as being married to George Lucas until 1983.
Lucas went on to declare her dissatisfaction over the demise of another classic Star Wars character, Luke Skywalker, who she believes was unceremoniously disintegrated, as well as the studio’s attempts to appeal to a female audience. Lucas even requests that Kennedy discuss the future of the franchise with her, descrying the new storylines as “terrible”.
“They have Luke disintegrate. They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore. And they’re spitting out movies every year. And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is. It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Just terrible. Awful. You can quote me…JJ Abrams, Kathy Kennedy – talk to me.'”
Now, full disclosure, this interview was carried out before the release of The Rise of Skywalker, but has only just now materialized, meaning that we do not know Lucas’ thoughts on Rey’s revealed parentage (she’s a Palpatine through convoluted means), but it’s not too much of a stretch to assume she would have hated that particular Disney effort as well.
So, how do you feel about Lucas’ opinion of what Disney has done with Star Wars? Surely, she must like The Mandalorian? Right? This interview is featured in the book “Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life”, which is now available to purchase, and comes to us courtesy of Variety.
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