Star Wars Editor Marcia Lucas Dunks on Kathleen Kennedy and the Disney Star Wars Sequels

Marcia Lucas, former wife of Star Wars creator George Lucas and an editor on the original Star Wars Trilogy, doesn’t think very highly of Disney Star Wars.

In a recently released book by the late Lucasfilm biographer J.W. Rinzler, Marcia Lucas had praise for current Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy as a person, but she said that Disney’s treatment of the Original Trilogy characters made her angry.

Here is an excerpt from Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life…

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 like 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 J.J. 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?’

And then at the end of this last one, The Last Jedi, 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–’J.J. Abrams, Kathy Kennedy–talk to me.

Marcia Lucas is the unsung hero of Star Wars. It was her last minute editing that reportedly salvaged A New Hope, which ushered in a whole new era of Hollywood blockbusters.

Lucas’ criticism of Star Wars isn’t limited solely to Disney’s handling of it, however. She has also been quoted as saying she didn’t like George’s Prequel Trilogy, either.

“George is, in his heart and soul, a good guy and a talented filmmaker. I wish he would’ve kept directing [other kinds of] movies. But when I went to see Episode I–I had a friend who worked at ILM, who took me as a guest to a preview–I remember going out to the parking lot, sitting in my car and crying. I cried. I cried because I think it wasn’t very good.”

Ouch.

Maybe someone ought to call up Ms. Lucas to help right the ship at Lucasfilm?

[Hat Tip: Bounding Into Comics]