It’s so funny to see Kathleen Kennedy pushing her full agenda as she prepares to exit the studio. No, she won’t be making any big deal about it at Star Wars Celebration. But she will be throwing everything and the kitchen sink at The Force Is Female.
Star Girls
The whole world now knows what those who read and watch my content have known for months. Rey is back for the next Star Wars movie. The sequel trilogy is not only reaffirmed but the destruction of the original content continues unabated. It wasn’t Luke who rebuilt the Jedi order… it will be Rey. But you’ve all already known that.
I’ve been struck watching this Star Wars Celebration at just how much Kathleen Kennedy has been able to get pushed through during the chaos at Disney. Using the turmoil of leadership changes and structural alterations within the company, Kennedy has managed to transform the future content of the brand into something that looks even more feminine than what Marvel attempted with their Phase Four slate. Now, there’s nothing wrong with feminine content — far from it! Both the masculine and feminine should be respected and lauded in entertainment. But as I’ve now said over and over, with the help of merchandising and programming contacts who say the same exact thing, taking a brand that was primarily driven by masculine heroes and transforming it into something distinctly female-in-masculine-archetype-roles is a task fraught with issues.
It also gives savvy fans the chance to finally enact their revenge on Kathleen Kennedy and Lucasfilm. Yes, they may still yet push Baby Yoda in the Rey movie (only with Jon Favreau’s blessing), but I’m not sure it is enough to convince people to see a Rey movie.
Daisy Ridley to Reprise Role as Rey in New ‘Star Wars’ Film https://t.co/OlwEC1NtAD
— Variety (@Variety) April 7, 2023
But it’s not just Rey. The Acolyte and Ahsoka are the next big Disney+ series for Star Wars. Both are headed by female leads, one with a character that is beloved and one which is set in the High Republic subcategory of the IP: one that up until this point has been a unilateral disaster. And then there’s also The Mandalorian where many have noticed that Bo Katan has become more of the star than The Mandalorian himself! Although… don’t be surprised if something dramatic happens at the end of this season… no spoilers here, folks. Then there’s the issue of the Young Jedi Adventures preschooler show where we suspect there’s a genderific reveal just around the corner.
All of this is to say that Kathleen Kennedy has fully implemented The Force Is Female concept into Star Wars. Every major series on the way is essentially led by a female character. The original story with Luke and Anakin has been decimated so that Rey and her Palpatine heritage are the true saviors of the story. And any attempts to retcon the sequel trilogy all seem to have been fully neutered at this point.
There’s still no hope for Kennedy. As I’ve said before, she’s at the very end of her tenure at Lucasfilm. The market will react poorly to these efforts. It is already reacting poorly. This is just icing on a cake made of no substance that nobody wants to eat. But at least we must stand back in awe and admire that even when audiences have abandoned Star Wars, even to the point of abandoning Disney at large now, Kathleen Kennedy and her cronies will only harden their hearts even more.
It’s truly something to behold. Unlike Star Wars.
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