Star Wars 9: Kathleen Kennedy on franchise future ‘Needs to EVOLVE differently to Marvel’

Lucasfilm President Kennedy has had highs and lows for the Star Wars franchise since Disney took charge. The first three films all topped $1 billion, but The Last Jedi received fan backlash and Solo was a box office flop. Since then Lucasfilm have slowed down on their Star Wars movie plans, with the next trilogy not beginning until 2022 under the Game of Thrones show-runners. Now in a new interview with Vanity Fair, Kennedy has spoken out on handling the Star Wars franchise’s future.

Kennedy said: “I think there is a larger expectation that Disney has.

“On the other hand, though, I think that Disney is very respectful of what this is, and right from the beginning we talked about the fragility of this form of storytelling.

“Because it’s something that means so much to fans that you can’t turn this into some kind of factory approach.

“You can’t even do what Marvel does, necessarily, where you pick characters and build new franchises around those characters. This needs to evolve differently.”

STAR WARS 9 NEW PHOTOS, CHARACTERS AND PLANETS

One the difference of tone today compared to the 1970s, Kennedy added: “There’s a loss of innocence, a sense of innocence that existed in the 70s that I don’t think to any extent exists today.

“I think that has to permeate the storytelling and the reaction to the stories and how they’re set up. It has to feel differently because we’re different.”

“Evil needs to feel and look very real and what that means today may not be as black-and-white as it might have been in 1977, coming off a kind of World War II sensibility.”

Last month, Kennedy admitted how Lucasfilm made a mistake with Solo and The Last Jedi.

James Dyer, who attended Star Wars Celebration revealed on the Empire podcast: “She said they learned their lessons from Solo; that doing two films in less than a year wasn’t something the fans were prepared to accept.

“And she’s hands up… ‘we made a mistake with that.’

“She’s eased her foot off the gas massively on this because she doesn’t want to see a repeat of Solo’s box office.”

Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker is released in UK cinemas on December 19, 2019.