Kathleen Kennedy via Producer’s Guild of America YouTube

Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy attempted to promote the company’s upcoming Star Wars: The Acolyte series by playing the victim and claiming that female Star Wars creatives are attacked in personal ways because the fan base is so male dominated.

LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Kathleen Kennedy attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Disney)

In an interview with The New York Times to promote the show, Kennedy said, “My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people. That’s an easy decision for me.”

She continued, “Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying. I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”

LONDON, ENGLAND – APRIL 07: Kathleen Kennedy onstage during the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 attends the studio panel at Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCel on April 07, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)

Ironically, Kathleen Kennedy has been accused of attacking a female creative and made it quite personal. When the company announced that it fired The Mandalorian actress Gina Carano a spokesman stated, “Gina Carano is not currently employed by Lucasfilm and there are no plans for her to be in the future.”

“Nevertheless, her social media posts denigrating people based on their cultural and religious identities are abhorrent and unacceptable,” the spokesman concluded.

Gina Carano is Cara Dune in THE MANDALORIAN, season two, exclusively on Disney+.

Carano has since filed a lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company and Lucasfilm and in the lawsuit she and her lawyers allege that Lucasfilm employees set up a GoFundMe account to support the transgender community. However, the GoFundMe also defamed her “by  accusing her of being a ‘bigoted’ actress.”

The lawsuit also detailed that Kennedy wanted Carano to join a struggle session on ZOOM with her and 45 other employees “who identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community.” The purpose of this struggle session, according to the lawsuit, “was a ‘litmus test’” to determine if she had the “willingness to endure such harassment and humiliation.”

The group was described by her publicist as “a friendly group that WANT Gina to succeed.” However, multiple employees that were to take part in the struggle session had contributed to the GoFundMe campaign including Leslye Headland.

The lawsuit states, “several had contributed to the anti-Carano GoFundMe account, including filmmaker Leslye Headland, who was scheduled to produce a Star Wars production.”

Cara Dune (Gina Carano) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN.

Not only has Kennedy been the one to attack female Star Wars creatives in personal ways, she’s also publicly admitted to intentionally trying to alter the Star Wars fan base.

During an appearance at Fortune Magazine’s The Most Powerful Women Summit, Kennedy said, “I think the interesting path we’ve had is the conversation that took place around consumer products. Because there were a lot of companies that were in place who frankly didn’t initially feel that Star Wars was for girls.”

She continued, “And when you have a company situation where between Lucasfilm and Disney, we were all looking at this situation saying, ‘No, with Star Wars we have to change this. We have to make sure that we create products that are in a sense appealing to both boys and girls.’ What’s wrong with that?”

Kennedy would go on to detail, “The fact that the company was bought by The Walt Disney Company has been amazing because they very much support the fact that we are trying to grow in the work force a number of women in executive positions and in all positions inside the company. And with the movies that we are making and with the protagonists that we are putting in the stories. So I get a huge amount of support with that.”

She added, “But we have 50% of our executive team are women. And six out of eight of the people in my story group are women. And I’m sure there’s a lot of people that would be surprised that we’re making Star Wars movies and the majority of the people involved in the development of those stories are women. And I think it’s making a huge difference in the stories that we’re trying to tell.”

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 15: Kathleen Kennedy arrives at the special 3-episode launch event for Lucasfilm’s original series Andor at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, California on September 15, 2022. (Photo by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images for Disney)

Interestingly, Daisy Ridley has rejected this idea that female creatives have been attacked. She told Today in January, “I think my take is things get blown out of proportion and the interactions I’ve ever had with people have been nothing but wonderful and supportive. And honestly the day we announced I was coming back at celebration last year, you cannot imagine the joy and good will in that room.”

She added, “So I’ve only ever been embraced. And I think we’re going to make a great film and people will love it.”

 

What do you make of Kathleen Kennedy’s attempt at promoting the show by playing victim?