There was a lot of excitement in the Star Wars fandom recently when a new report revealed that Kathleen Kennedy was to leave her role as Lucasfilm chief before the end of the year… almost immediately this was followed by another report saying she wasn’t going anywhere… so make what you will of it.

These rumours have been going around for years, and usually surface whenever a new movie or show fails, so shouldn’t be taken too seriously. But regardless of whether she goes or stays, there’s more to the future of Star Wars than Kathleen Kennedy.

I say Star Wars because while she’s the head of Lucasfilm, it’s mainly been this particular franchise that’s been affected under her leadership, and it’s by far the biggest. It also looks like the only franchise remaining, after Indiana Jones came to a sad end, and Willow was cancelled.

Is it fair to blame KK for all the problems that have materialized in the past thirteen years? She’s been the leader of the company since George Lucas sold it in 2012, and gave her his full confidence. She had a pretty good career before, through her company Kennedy-Marshall (alongside Frank Marshall) and working with legends like Steven Spielberg, she got her name on some brilliant movies, some of which are favourites of mine, like Jurassic Park and The Sixth Sense. But in her handling of Star Wars, she’s fumbled it badly.

She didn’t demand a plan before giving the go ahead to the sequel trilogy. She’s overseen flops like Solo. She’s greenlit a ton of products that have never seen daylight, from Rogue Squadron to Rangers of the New Republic. She’s frequently produced material than angers fans, and seems completely opposed to everything Star Wars should be, of which The Acolyte was the ultimate example. Yes, she can take credit for Rogue One and Andor, but on the whole, reception has been mixed, and the franchise has gone downhill fast while she’s been the head.

It’s true not every single error is her fault. J.J. Abrams, Rian Johnson, Leslye Headland, all deserve blame for their parts, but it’s part of the responsibility of those at the top to take responsibility. You get a good paycheck, promise of a great paycheck, and the power to make decisions. When things go right, you share in the praise, so when things go wrong, you have to take the fall.

In fairness, it’s clearly not just Kennedy’s fault, as similar problems are plaguing many franchises, from Marvel to Jurassic World. It’s much more than just her, this is something affecting the entire Hollywood industry. But even if all blame is placed on her head and she leaves before the end of the year, what will that really mean for Star Wars? Would it actually solve anything? Short answer: no.

It might open up possibilities to begin fixing things, but let’s be honest, who would replace her, and would that really alter anything, or just be more of the same?

It’s likely it will be some producer or old Fox exec chosen by Disney, but there are two names being thrown around by fans that need to be looked at, Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau.

Let’s look at Favreau first. He might seem like a good choice. He started the MCU for real with Iron Man, and is responsible for The Mandalorian, one of the most popular things from Disney Star Wars, soon to make its way onto the big screen. While the show is fun, it’s nothing ground-breaking, and nothing in it signals that he has (or even had) bold visions for the franchise. It’s more like a nice distraction, and season three was a mess. The more I hear about The Mandalorian & Grogu, the less excited I am for it. Finally, just because he’s a talented director doesn’t mean he has what it takes to run a company, and deal with the corporate side of things.

Dave Filoni seems to be an even more popular choice, but I’m not sure why. He’s a big name in Star Wars, having been with the franchise since 2008, responsible for The Clone Wars, and seen as something of a prodigy of George Lucas. He even created Rebels, which I consider the best SW series, live-action or animated. But really, what would make him a good choice? Not only is he inexperienced in corporate affairs, having always focused on the creative side, but his output has been poor lately. Ahsoka was a chance to prove he could do live-action, but it was a complete disaster and huge disappointment, and he increasingly relies on nostalgia and self-reference to make things work, while either stealing from other writer’s work, or steamrollering over it. This is a road to nowhere, and he has no true vision for the franchise to move forward, except endless spin-offs and fan fiction.

Both have been involved in a system that’s failed to change time and time again. Even imagining that either of these got the job, and were right for it, that would only be the first step to putting things right.

Star Wars is damaged. Everything that’s been badly received, every fan that’s been annoyed or disappointed, every failed project, cancelled movie, bad TV show, every time something’s come out that no on wanted, has made another small cut to the franchise’s integrity, driving away fans, and giving them no reason to come back. After all, why should they keep giving their money to a company that doesn’t respect them, keeps ignoring them, and has destroyed what they love, taking someone else’s work which they never earned, and twisting it into something else.

Look at Skeleton Crew, this should have been a hit, and it might have been five years ago. Fans who grew up in the 1980s would have liked its nostalgic feel, and it might even have brought in younger viewers, yet it was a huge failure. But they’ve gone now, and Star Wars has become irrelevant to new generations, who have plenty of other things to distract their attention.

Trying to turn the franchise to a new audience while taking the existing one for granted was a mistake, it ended up pleasing no one, and drove away the loyal army that kept it going during the periods between trilogies. They’ve been let down too many times now that they no longer care, and have little investment for any new projects.

The focus in the last five years on making it almost exclusively streaming-based has also ruined the relevance of the franchise. If it had been on Netflix there might have been a chance, but just like Marvel, it’s become reliant on a constant stream of sub-par shows, on a streaming platform with a small audience. Each one of these has either gone completely unnoticed, or only gained recognition for its negative reception. Each time this has happened, it’s made the IP less important, diluted what it is, and even made it a laughing stock.

The only exception is The Mandalorian, which had a lot of popularity thanks to the little green “baby Yoda” Grogu, something Disney took full advantage of by plastering his image on every piece of merchandise they could. But this meant they were afraid to lose him, even when the story demanded it, leading to the rushed reunion with Din Djarin in The Book of Boba Fett, and the aimless third season of the show.

Despite the fact there will be a movie based on the show coming out next year, I don’t hear any talk of Star Wars returning to the big screen, as there was in 1999 and 2015. In fact, I’d be surprised if anyone even knew this was a SW movie. The cultural impact that this brand once enjoyed is now gone.

Any revival of the franchise would have to bring back the fans who’ve drifted away in the last ten years, but I’m not sure that’s even possible now. Even if there were a stream of amazing new movies and shows released by Disney in the next few years, it doesn’t fix what happened in the past, it will take years to rebuild that trust.

The original characters have been assassinated, in some cases quite literally, and there can never be the reunion of the golden trio that fans wanted. New movies won’t give justice to Luke Skywalker or Han Solo. These stories have come to car crash endings, and there’s no way to rectify them short of a complete reset.

This also means that they have nothing left. They’ve stripped the cupboard bare, taking one character after another and using them up. Han, Luke, Leia, Obi Wan, Thrawn, even Ahsoka, have all been wrung dry by Disney. It might seem like they are mad to say Rey is the only asset they have left, but it’s true. She’s the only major character there is who’s still unspoilt.

Even if they were to choose some prequels and spin-offs to fill the gaps, all roads lead to the sequel trilogy, and things like a series focusing on Luke’s Jedi Order would be tainted with the knowledge that in a few years he’ll try and kill his own nephew because he had a bad dream. When you assassinate a character, you can’t bring them back.

What Star Wars has become is a franchise completely lost with so many wrong turns, dead ends, and wrecks throughout the last few years to ever truly recover. They had the chance to make something truly special with The Force Awakens, something that would set them on a new path, and they failed. Since then, they’ve stumbled from one thing to another, going deeper down the wrong path, making things no one wants, and ruining their reputation.

They missed the opportunity to define themselves with a new era and captivating storytelling, which is why they’ve jumped from one age to the next, from Clone Wars, to original trilogy, to High Republic. There’s been no plan for how to proceed, so there’s nothing for them to build off of, just a jumble of half-finished, poorly thought out projects with no future prospects. They have nothing of their own, and no future.

So many projects have just gone nowhere, commissioned or announced with no thought of how they fit in with the larger franchise, or what fans might think of them. A Rogue Squadron movie, Rangers of the New Republic, a Lando movie, and films from directors including James Mangold, Taika Watiti, and Kevin Feige have either been cancelled or stuck in development hell for years, giving fans no reason to be hopeful for any new announcement.

They don’t even have the final option left for most legacy franchises to grasp for: nostalgia. They’ve leaned heavily into this ever since they started, using characters, scenes and imagery from the Original Trilogy, or picking from the Expanded Universe (now called “Legends”) to get a reaction from fans, and have ruined the chance to tell good stories with characters like Han Solo and Obi Wan Kenobi, squandering great opportunities to fill in these characters’ backstories.

Yes, they could choose others, and tell us more about Qui Gon Jinn or Palpatine, but who would care? Why would fans expect them to be treated any better? Who should they get excited to see another favourite character taken apart?

I really think any change of leadership at this point would be too little, too late. I don’t think it can be saved so easily, if it all.

The only way it could change for the better is to take a break. Stop everything that’s in the works and really think about where to go next. Bring in new talent. Lay out a whole new plan, maybe retcon some past projects to make it more manageable. Reach out to fans and admit you’ve made mistakes, and tell them you want to fix it. Then maybe, in five years or so, get back out there with some great new movies and real episodic television show. That might, *might*, just be enough to rescue the franchise.

But that won’t happen. There’s still money to be made (for now), and too much involved to back down. They aren’t going to pause and fix things, so they are going to fail instead.

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