Marcia Lucas, the Oscar-winning editor of Star Wars: Episiode IV – A New Hope (and George Lucas’ ex-wife), doesn’t seem to be a fan of how Disney’s sequel trilogy turned out.
In an interview for Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life, a new book regarding the life and work of the legendary film producer behind classics such as The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Return of the Jedi, Lucas expressed her contempt for the new Star Wars movies, accusing Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and director J.J. Abrams of having no clue how to handle the franchise.
Lucas revealed how furious she was when she learned about Han Solo’s death in The Force Awakens, which was similarly and unfortunately proceeded by the death of other key characters such as Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia. Lucas also criticized the sequel trilogy’s protagonist, Rey, in that nobody seems to know how she got her powers or what her actual backstory is.
The full excerpt from Lucas:
“I like Kathleen. I always liked her,” says Marcia Lucas. “She was full of beans. She was really smart and really bright. Really wonderful woman. And I liked her husband, Frank. I liked them a lot. Now that she’s running Lucasfilm and making movies, it seems to me that Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams don’t have a clue about Star Wars. They don’t get it. And J.J. Abrams is writing these stories when I saw that movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious. I was furious when they killed Han Solo. Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. I thought, You don’t get the Jedi story. You don’t get the magic of Star Wars. You’re getting rid of Han Solo? And then at the end of this last one, The Last Jedi, they have Luke disintegrate. They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore. And they’re spitting out movies every year. And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is. It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Just terrible. Awful.
“You can quote me ‘J.J. Abrams, Kathy Kennedy—talk to me.'”
Marcia Lucas on the Disney produced Star Wars films. pic.twitter.com/MFE9f8fFpG
— Jedi scum (@jediscum83) September 19, 2021
Lucas won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing in 1977 for her work on Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, but she also played a substantial role in the development of some of the film’s most memorable story beats. She was the one who told George Lucas to consider letting Obi-Wan Kenobi die at the hands of Darth Vader during their iconic lightsaber battle in the Death Star.