Kathleen Kennedy Praises Rian Johnson’s Star Wars Vision, Reveals Online Backlash Derailed Sequel Plans

Well, it finally happened: Kathleen Kennedy officially stepped down from running Lucasfilm this week. Of course, she's not going quietly – she's also been serving up some blunt post-mortems about her decade-plus steering the Star Wars ship, including some pretty candid stuff about why Rian Johnson hasn’t been around since The Last Jedi (aka, the most argued-about installment in modern Star Wars history).

The Curious Case of Rian Johnson's Star Wars Exit

Here’s the deal according to Kennedy: Johnson didn’t bail on Star Wars just out of creative burnout (though you could hardly blame him). Instead, he got busy with his now-very-lucrative Knives Out deal at Netflix, which pretty much consumed all his time. But, plot twist – Kennedy says that wall of internet hate from 2017 also 'spooked' him.

She explained it like this: Johnson's jump to Knives Out came right after The Last Jedi, with his schedule snowballing from there. He isn't the only would-be Star Wars director to run into this problem either; Kennedy says Shawn Levy, who was tapped for Star Wars: Starfighter, found himself vanishing into the Stranger Things vortex (which, if you've seen the Netflix churn, totally tracks).

'I think Rian made one of the best Star Wars movies. He's a brilliant filmmaker and he got spooked. This is the rough part. When people come into this space, I have every filmmaker and actors say to me, "What's going to happen?" They're a little scared.'

The Troll Problem, Or: Why Making Star Wars Isn't All Lightsabers and Fun

Kennedy didn’t hold back on what it really means to take on any Star Wars project these days–basically, be ready to armor up for the internet pile-on. She says she preps incoming writers, actors, and especially women working on Star Wars for the inevitable wave of nasty online backlash. No sugarcoating: she tells them it’s a small group with very loud megaphones... and sometimes maybe even some bots throwing fuel on the fire.

To quote Kennedy directly: you need a 'tough skin.' The online noise isn’t going anywhere, so either ignore it and keep telling your story, or don’t sign up for Star Wars at all. There’s just no way around it.

Who's Running Star Wars Now?

A quick heads up in case you missed it: with Kennedy stepping aside after running Lucasfilm for 14 years, the Star Wars keys are now in the hands of Dave Filoni (as chief creative officer) and Lynwen Brennan (general manager). So if the galaxy starts to look a little different, you'll know why.

TL;DR Recap

• Kathleen Kennedy just exited her role as president of Lucasfilm after 14 years.
• Rian Johnson dropped off the Star Wars map mostly because he got busy with Knives Out at Netflix, but also because he was 'spooked' by massive online negativity after The Last Jedi.
• Kennedy claims almost every new filmmaker and actor she talks to feels some level of apprehension about audience backlash, and she’s especially upfront with women about the unfair online targeting.
• Her advice? Develop a tough skin, or maybe just walk away if you can’t deal with the noise.
• Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan are now officially running Star Wars.

So, the behind-the-scenes drama is sometimes even weirder than what ends up on screen. Welcome to modern franchise filmmaking, I guess.