Good Night, Kathleen

Kathleen Kennedy is supposedly retiring. I watched Grace Randolph's YouTube video about it this morning in which Randolph argued that Kennedy's likely lousy legacy will be due to Kennedy's too aggressive endeavour to remake Star Wars into a franchise primarily aimed at women and not men. In the process, she only managed to alienate both groups. I think there's plenty of truth in that. When I first came to Japan five years ago and started working in junior high schools, when I mentioned Star Wars to students they could talk a little bit about Rey and Kylo Ren. Now when I mention Star Wars to students, most of them only know it as something their dads are into.

I suspect at the heart of the problem is Kennedy's resentment for a long career in which Spielberg and Lucas garnered praise while she stood by, feeling her contributions to the original Indiana Jones films weren't recognised. If she'd have been seeing more clearly, she might have noticed how well the first Indiana Jones movies appealed to both men and women. Marvel movies may also stubbornly, primarily appeal to a male demographic, but women will talk about the beefcake in those movies. The key to making new female characters for Star Wars or Indiana Jones would be to make them appeal to both men and women. Just like Indiana Jones, they should have been characters the opposite sex found sexy and vulnerable. If we lived in a better world. a filmmaker could do that without any shred of feeling like they were capitulating to misogynists.

But I still say the primary problem with both Indiana Jones and Star Wars is that both franchises were born in an America that was still relatively religious. The new writers don't understand religion or spirituality so the last two Indiana Jones movies became science fiction affairs and the best Star Wars projects have been Rogue One and Andor, two productions that have had next to nothing to do with the Jedi.

Who should Kathleen Kennedy's successor be? I hope it's not Dave Filoni but I'd say there's an 80% change it will be. My pick would be Tony Gilroy but it would be nice if they could find someone who could write about the Force with a real sense of appreciation.