Rumors are circulating today that Kathleen Kennedy plans to step down as Lucasfilm president by the end of 2025.
(Update: It's official.)
And good riddance to her. She was mayhap the single most divisive, polarizing (in the worst way possible), and revenue-tanking studio executive to ever live.
On her watch, Disney ruined Star Wars to the point that even the polarizing prequels are now adored because the universe George Lucas built was simply superior to anything Star Wars created since (with a few rare exceptions sprinkled in as the exception that proves the rule).
I never watched the latest Indiana Jones flick, but I heard it’s not good either. (The IP for Indiana Jones also lives under the Lucasfilms branch.)
But why did Kathleen Kennedy, who by all metrics was a very good executive producer with a long-list of classic titles under her name like E.T., Jurassic Park, and Back to the Future, fail so miserably as the president of Lucasfilms?
Simple:
She despised her customers.
Even the mildest critique on the Star Wars sequel trilogy—for example, the blatant fact that it was not planned as a trilogy, and thus, doesn’t make sense as a trilogy because one movie positions the protagonist as a Skywalker descendant, then the next movie claims she’s a nobody, and then the trilogy ends with her adopting the Skywalker name out of nowhere, even though Palpatine/Darth Sidious (who died in Episode 6 of the original trilogy and magically came back for Episode 9 despite not even a single hint of foreshadowing) was revealed as her grandfather in Episode 9, which again, you literally couldn’t guess if you tried based on what happened in Episode 6, 7, and 8—were met with pure vitriol and protective quips that labeled anyone who saw the fustercluck for what it was as “trolls” instead of owning the fact that, yes, the planning on the sequel trilogy was so bad a 5-year-old kid could’ve crafted a better three-movie story arc.
Not a good way to make folks excited about anything new from Star Wars.
And the sequel trilogy is only one example of the absolute mess that Lucasfilms became under Kennedy’s reign.
For example, Lucasfilms added a random Mandalorian episode to their Boba Fett show. They also turned an obvious Obi-Wan Kenobi movie into a Disney+ show to boost subscriptions to their streaming platform. And I could go on and on about all the various failures that happened under her reign.
But all the mistakes and missteps could be summarized down into an obvious hatred for the Star Wars base:
Hating the original Star Wars fans (for seemingly no other reason than being men).
Don’t shoot the messenger here.
Since Kennedy took over Lucasfilms, she tried her hardest to attract more females into the fandom. Nothing wrong with this per se. Many females have come to adore Star Wars too.
But here’s the thing:
She tried her hardest to attract females into the fandom at the expense of customers.
The truth is that boys (and probably some men) built the rabid fandom. They bought all the figurines, video games, and plastic lightsabers. And her fundamental mistake in terms of growing an already successful IP comes down to her repelling the paying customers (boys) to attract more leads (girls) into the fandom.
Many businesses make this same mistake, even if the line isn’t based solely on gender, as seems to be the case with Star Wars.
Problem is, businesses exist to serve the customers. Not spit in their face.
And, yes, while there may even be plenty of real trolls, the fact of the matter is that calling all of the original Star Wars fans trolls—the same fans responsible for George Lucas turning his idea in his head into a multibillion dollar IP—instead of actually listening to their concerns is why she’ll be out at Lucasfilms, why Star Wars isn't as beloved as an IP as it was even during the prequel days (where it wasn’t as beloved as it was in the original trilogy days), and why almost every Star Wars project released in her time left a bad taste in fans’ mouths.
Heck, I even liked Episode 7 when it came out, and I didn’t absolutely hate Episode 8 either. But Episode 9 retroactively made me despise the entire sequel trilogy because of the obvious lack of planning.
Lots of lessons to learn from this cautionary tale.
Anywho:
Repellant marketing—where you repel people who wouldn’t be a good fit for your products or services or media—is a powerful strategy because it attracts your ideal customers while repelling your worst ones. As long as you don’t do it the way Star Wars and Lucasfilms did: They repelled their paying customers to attract leads—but this strategy only works the other way around.
And email marketing is uniquely positioned for repellant marketing.
If you’d like to see how this works, and how it could grow that bidness of yours, hit reply, and let’s set up a quick discovery call.
John
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