Kathleen Kennedy has opened up about her years as president of Lucasfilm after stepping down this week, including her experience working with Rian Johnson in the highly divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi. According to Kennedy, the filmmaker stepped back from the franchise due to other work commitments, but he also got "spooked" by the "online negativity" he received back in 2017.
"Once he made the Netflix deal and went off to start doing the Knives Out films, that has occupied a huge amount of his time," Kennedy told Deadline, using director Shawn Levy – who is helming the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter – as another example. "That’s the other thing that happens here. After Shawn and I started talking about Star Wars, Stranger Things kicks in and he was completely consumed for a while by that. That's what happened with Rian."
"You have to develop a tough skin," she continued. "That is exactly right. That's what you have to do. You can't make it go away. All we can do is put our heads down and do the work and believe that we're doing the best we can, telling the best story we can. And if somebody gets really nervous about it and doesn’t want to do it, I say, then don't do it because I can't tell you this won’t happen."
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
