Elon Musk does not like what Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy has finished with the Star Wars franchise.
“She’s extra lethal than the Dying Star!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X on Friday in response to a meme that referred to as Kennedy a “franchise killer.”
The Academy Award-winning movie producer was appointed president of Lucasfilm after the corporate was acquired by Disney in 2012. However Kennedy’s management of Lucasfilm has drawn a blended reception from Star Wars followers.
Whereas Kennedy was initially capable of land field workplace hits like 2015’s “Star Wars: The Power Awakens” and 2016’s “Rogue One,” Lucasfilm’s subsequent entries into the sci-fi franchise have been missing.
In 2018, Star Wars noticed an enormous field workplace bomb in “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” per Deadline.
The franchise’s foray into streaming additionally yielded blended outcomes, with exhibits like “The E-book of Boba Fett” doing poorly with audiences, in response to Rotten Tomatoes.
She’s extra lethal than the Dying Star!
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 21, 2024
And it appears that evidently Kennedy’s concentrate on progressive themes and feminine protagonists in Star Wars initiatives has been an enormous bugbear for Musk.
“Kathleen Kennedy is tremendous bigoted in opposition to males,” he wrote in a subsequent X publish on Saturday, referring to an interview that Kennedy gave to The New York Occasions final month.
Within the interview, Kennedy defended Leslye Headland, the director and author of the newest Star Wars tv collection “The Acolyte,” after followers slammed Headland and referred to as her “woke.”
“Working inside these big franchises now, with social media and the extent of expectation, it is terrifying,” Kennedy instructed The Occasions.
“I feel numerous the ladies who step into ‘Star Wars’ wrestle with this a bit extra. Due to the fan base being so male-dominated, they often get attacked in methods that may be fairly private,” she added.
Kathleen Kennedy is tremendous bigoted in opposition to males
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) June 22, 2024
To make sure, Kathleen’s stewardship of Star Wars is not the one cause behind the franchise’s perceived decline amongst followers.
In 2019, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger stated the studio may need launched too many Star Wars initiatives after buying Lucasfilm. Iger stepped down as CEO in 2020 earlier than returning to the job in 2022.
“I simply suppose that we’d’ve put just a little bit an excessive amount of within the market too quick,” Iger instructed The New York Occasions in a report printed in September 2019.
This criticism of Kennedy is not the primary time Musk has expressed his displeasure at what he manufacturers “woke” ideology, and individuals who champion variety, fairness, and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
“DEI is simply one other phrase for racism. Disgrace on anybody who makes use of it,” Musk stated in an X publish in January.
Kennedy additionally wasn’t the primary govt to attract Musk’s ire concerning progressive company initiatives. Musk tore into fellow billionaire Mark Cuban after the latter voiced his assist for company DEI initiatives earlier this 12 months.
“Mark Cuban is desperately making an attempt to sign his ‘advantage,’ however his hypocrisy convinces nobody,” Musk stated in an X publish printed in January.
Representatives for Musk and Kennedy didn’t instantly reply to requests for remark from BI despatched outdoors common enterprise hours.
