‘Star Wars’ Editor Marcia Lucas Slams Kathleen Kennedy and J.J. Abrams: ‘They Don’t Have a Clue’

https://www.datalounge.com/thread/29392714-%E2%80%98star-wars%E2%80%99-editor-marcia-lucas-slams-kathleen-kennedy-and-j.j.-abrams-%E2%80%98they-don%E2%80%99t-have-a-clue%E2%80%99

Marcia Lucas is no fan of the Disney-produced “Star Wars” movies. While being interviewed for J.W. Rinzler’s just-published book on “The Empire Strikes Back” and “Return of the Jedi” film producer Howard Kazanjian, Lucas slammed current Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and director J.J. Abrams for their storyline decisions. The choice to kill off Han Solo and Luke Skywalker particularly made Lucas upset.

Lucas won an Oscar for editing the original “Star Wars” along with Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew. She returned to co-edit “Return of the Jedi” and went uncredited on “The Empire Strikes Back.” Prior to “Star Wars,” Lucas made a name for herself editing Martin Scorsese’s “Taxi Driver” and “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore,” and she was also Oscar nominated for “American Graffiti.” Marcia Lucas was married to George Lucas between 1969 and 1983.

“I Like Kathleen. I always liked her,” Marcia Lucas says in Rinzler’s book, “Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life.” “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?”

Rinzler, a former executive editor at Lucasfilm, interviewed Lucas in between the releases of “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” although his book on Kazanjian was just published September 14, 2021. (Rinzler passed away shortly before the book’s release.) Lucas also railed against the decision to kill Luke Skywalker in “The Last Jedi.”

“They have Luke disintegrate,” Lucas says. “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.'”