George Lucas is often hailed as the founder of perhaps two of the most treasured franchises – Star Wars and Indiana Jones – in the realm of classics.
But while he may have birthed the globally astronomical Star Wars saga, Steven Spielberg was the one to alter the trajectory of the space opera film series with a single hire, albeit inadvertently so.
The cherry on the top, however, is that the person in question is someone who many fans, if not all, seem to loathe vehemently. Yikes.
Steven Spielberg’s Hire That Changed the Orbit of Star Wars
From working as a screenwriter’s secretary to leading Lucasfilm as the President of the gargantuan entertainment company, Kathleen Kennedy has come a long way in her career. As it turns out, her organizational skills (that double as her lucky stars in this case) were what propped her on the eminent filmmaker Steven Spielberg’s radar, paving the way for her big break in Hollywood (via Fortune | THR).
Spielberg, 77, on a visit to Apocalypse Now writer John Milius, couldn’t help but admire the latter’s office in its pristine condition which was thanks to his then-secretary, Kennedy.
“I noticed that John had a very organized office. I was watching how Kathy handled all of his incoming requests.”
That was when The Fabelmans filmmaker decided to hire Kennedy who is the current President of Lucasfilm and also the co-founder of Amblin Entertainment, a production company that she started with Spielberg in 1981.
But could the Indiana Jones creator have foreseen that his decision to hire Kennedy – which doesn’t seem to have aged well – would end up backfiring so lethally that roughly half of the Star Wars fandom would come to despise the E.T. producer? Maybe not, but that certainly doesn’t deter fans from lambasting Kennedy.
The Bad Blood Between Star Wars Fans & Kathleen Kennedy
The tremendous changes that followed Disney’s acquisition of Lucasfilm along with Kennedy’s recruitment as the latter’s sole President augured a complete reconstruction of the Star Wars franchise (via Lucasfilm Ltd). But the alterations that arose in the aftermath only seemed to evoke embittered outcries of censure from fans.
One of the most conspicuous instances of fans’ outward expression of their distaste toward the 71-year-old executive was during the Star Wars sequel trilogy which landed with a disappointing thud on the thorny grounds.
While The Force Awakens – which grossed more than $2 billion across the globe – became J.J. Abrams’ highest-grossing film (via The Numbers), the other two installments didn’t fare nearly as well as the first one. Rian Johnson’s failed attempts at tampering with many authentic features of Star Wars in The Last Jedi were met with blazing criticism.
But even when Abrams returned to direct the third film in the series, fans’ displeasure didn’t seem to quell in the least. If anything, The Rise of Skywalker was received with even more acrimony than its predecessor and became the least profitable outing in the sequel trilogy (via ScreenRant).
These box-office failures were directly traced back to Kennedy, under whose tenure an otherwise thriving Star Wars seemed to wither brutally. Not to mention, the multiple scrapped projects like the Boba Fett movie and hushed exec controversies like firing directors only added fuel to the fire. And the Rogue One producer became one of the most despised entities within Star Wars.
