Dissecting The Current Star Wars “Iger Vs Kennedy” Rumor

As much as I prefer to look at the end product and see its strengths and weaknesses, the backstage on this one is almost as hard to ignore as the culture war invasion. Seeing how often “woke” gets brought up because a few critics out there don’t know what the term is supposed to mean–not being garbage in general but the specific cause being extremist sociopolitical ideology based on pushing stereotypes and attacking anyone outside the hive mind–the formerly known “political correctness” now called “the right side of history” is only one issue with the current Hollywood climate and any media it has corrupted along with itself. The corporate nonsense is also an issue. I didn’t put corporatists above activists in the SEECA acronym just because it sounded better when spoken. The other three–snobs, elitists, and egoists–do fight for first place and that WAS a pronunciation decision. Just for the record.

Now YouTuber Den Of Nerds just dropped a major rumor bomb that changes the corporate discussion about how poorly the Star Wars franchise has been maintained…but not the way the host thinks it does. From his livestream channel podcasts came a rumor from his most trusted leak source that the most hated changes in the Star Wars lore came not from LucasFilm head Kathleen Kennedy but Disney CEO Bob Iger. This supposedly changes the entire narrative. Iger is the real villain and all the hate that Kennedy has gotten has been misplaced and she’s actually the one trying to fix Star Wars. Yeah, pressing X to doubt on…some of this. I think there’s plenty of blame to go around here. Still, let’s give the host a chance to make his case. There’s also a clip that comes from one of his more recent streams, hosted at the clips channel for his livestreams because YouTube is a mess onto itself you need three channels for the same show to get the algorithm to play nice with you.

From the three I grabbed his regular video apologizing to Kennedy for his own comments, which discusses everything that he’s put together after getting this report. Note that what is about to be said is rumor and should be treated as such. Also, there is swearing, which is not a regular thing here at the Spotlight, which is why I bring it up when it’s there.

Here is a link to the original clip from the livestream he first made the report, and a follow-up video with more information, but while I watched them, I don’t think I need to post them here. The links are there if your curious. I did post the livestream clip first but this video better collects everything he discusses and is thinking.

I have no sources. I know a former DC Comics editor who wasn’t happy with how they operate and a few comic writers. That’s the closest thing I have ever had to a source for anything. BW Media Spotlight is a review site that goes into commentary in discussing the art of storytelling. I hear from people with “sources” much like you readers do,  I know nobody attached to the creation of Star Wars so I have no problem asking: am I the only one who thinks all these Lucasfilm “sources” aren’t worth the resale price of an Acolyte action figure? On any given day we’ve heard “Kathleen’s leaving” “no she’s staying” “John Favreau and Dave Filoni are trying to save Star Wars from Kennedy and everybody at Lucasfilm is part of a civil war over Star Wars” “Dave and Kathleen are besties, actually” “both Dave and Kathleen are fighting over which female is going to lead Star Wars, Rey or Ashoka”….I could go on, but at this point I don’t buy any of it from any Lucasfilm or Disney “source”. The Bantha poodoo is too high at this point.

Congrats on no longer being the worst things about Star Wars.

Still, let’s pretend any of it is worth an ice cream maker on Hoth. It is true that Iger pretty much admitted in his book that he was the one who tossed out all of George Lucas’ plans and either he or Kennedy tossed out the “expanded universe”, keeping it “legends” to not lose the money from it. Considering fan reaction to the prequels, as I went over last week as part of Lucas officially washing his hands of it, it would be a business decision to distance from the prequels, except it’s only the movies themselves that fans didn’t care for. The Clone Wars (both the Genndy Tartakovsky shorts that led into Revenge Of The Sith and the Lucasfilm-produced CG series) and other media taking place around that period in the timeline were still popular, with the exception of the movie formed from intended cartoon episodes because they were clearly TV episodes turned into a movie. You know, like The Mandalorian & Grogu. Seems we learn nothing.

Also, if anything, what Disneyfilm did to the franchise has actually put the prequels in a BETTER light. The Force Awakens was seen as a better use of JJ Abrams than his Star Trek movies because he leaned more on the action side, something Kirk and company are not known for by fans who pay attention. However, Abrams supposedly going back to what made the original trilogy great was a surface level view of the movies rather than going to the serial and samurai movie influences that the movies were based on. Samurai 7, a futuristic anime retelling of The Seven Samurai (American movie fans would be more familiar with the cowboy version, The Magnificent Seven) was more Star Wars than The Force Awakens. Meanwhile Rian Johnson’s movie was The Empire Strikes Back in reverse, “The First Order Strikes Backward” if you will, along with subversion of not only expectations but fans’ desires. Killing Han already ensured we’d never get the full cast back together like we always wanted to see, and that’s before the actors started passing away and Mark Hamill, who blamed Johnson and not Iger or Kennedy for “Jake Skywalker”, lost his mind over politics, or rather one lone President.

The closest thing to anything good about the High Republic period and I still never get the name right.

So who gets blamed for years of novels, comics, and video games now no longer being official canon, if they ever were? Lucas signed off on their existing but as they could conflict with each other it’s not like the timeline was as maintained as some people think. Who gets blamed for Indiana Jones or Willow’s return marred by the same attitude that “The Force Is Female” come from? If Kennedy was given complete control over the streaming shows, with Iger reportedly blocking movies (which could have been more about pushing Disney+, as Obi-Wan and The Book Of Boba Fett were intended to be movies, or how badly the movies were doing in part because of streaming), how did we end up with The Acolyte, currently the most hated thing in Star Wars since Jar Jar Binks, and I’m pretty sure a Jar Jar movie would receive a warmer welcome at this point than another season of Osha’s antics OR a Rey movie. If the goal is to bring the franchise back to the fans, the High Republic would not exist because from conception it did the exact opposite. Killing off the sequels shouldn’t include killing off the three movies fans loved, not from canon perhaps but certainly tarnishing their happy ending by not going the route of the books with Han & Leia’s twins, Mara Jade, and ruining fan-favorite villain Grand Admiral Thrawn. Even the first “Star Wars Story”, Rogue One, gets praise as a movie but is lacking in the tone of the original movies.

According to the host and his source, Kennedy saw the importance in passing the torch properly by getting the Luke/Rey mentorship right, which The Last Jedi most definitely did not and it took LEGO Star Wars to do a better job with in their Holiday parody in exploring the master/apprentice dynamic. Again, not what I hear from Indiana Jones & The Dial Of Destiny or Willow the series when it comes to female apprentices. I also remember Leslie Headland saying that Kathleen thought she wrote a good Star Wars story, but needed to scrap it so Headland could write her story. Was that Iger going over the initial pitch (which I would love to see) or Kennedy? I’ll at least say that Iger is right that nobody would have believed Kylo Ren wasn’t dead because I’m still not buying Boba Fett (who I still say is overrated) is still walking around, something both Disneyfilm and the “Legends” timelines made happen. Palpatine’s clone resurrection is hated by both classic and Disney era Star Wars. Darth Maul kind of has a decent explanation but it’s still a stretch because, like Fett, he has a large fanbase. I get Driver really liked playing the character (Ahmed Best really liked playing Jar Jar and look where that got him) and any redemption he could have had was ruined by bad storytelling (kind of like Finn’s nonexistent character arc and Rey learning to be a Jedi way too easy in many fans’ eyes), but if it doesn’t make sense then you have a what if fanfic, not a good official movie idea.

“Suck eggs, modern Star Wars does. Like that thing they keep calling baby me. A whore, his mother is”

I’m not defending Bob Iger. I’m saying that both of them are to blame for the failings of Lucasfilm when it comes to Star Wars and their other properties, the same way I blame both Iger and Kevin Feige for the failures of Marvel Studios also after being acquired by Disney. Iger clearly doesn’t know what he’s doing with either property. Calling out Kathleen Kennedy isn’t a defense of Bob Iger, nor is the reverse true. Everybody is the Sith Lord here. It takes more than one person to ruin the most lucrative geek franchise out there. It takes a bunch of people who don’t know what they’re doing, who put ideology or personal bias or marketing nonsense–or all three in this case–above the story and the lore that fans already liked, and to mismanage one of the biggest money machines in Hollywood, a franchise once written off because it was a family friendly but not kid-targeted science fiction story that happened to be exactly what people needed at that point in theatrical, American, and world history. Star Wars sparked hope, imagination, excitement, and fun–four things nobody at Lucasfilm today seems capable of doing whether they believe in any of those things or not.

It doesn’t take Yoda to see why Star Wars is failing, regardless of who is responsible. To me, everybody is responsible and needs to get their act together or let someone who cares about getting it right. Not just business decisions or fanfic, but actually cares about making the movies and expanded media right. Even the last couple of games since Jedi: Fallen Order have failed to be good games (Outlaws was a disaster) or good additions to the mythos. Fanfilms show that you can care about the existing lore, give something to fans and casuals alike (the good movies have to play to both audiences). The current crop of crap coming from Lucasfilm and Disney are not doing that. That is why they fail. Besides, you know what this fan wants to see:

Lego Star Wars: The Freemaker Adventures is part of my head canon.

Make The Freemaker Adventures canon already!

If he was wiped out or changed in that “rebuild the galaxy” thing, which we know they want to do with actual Star Wars, I will be sad.