I’ll Believe It When I See It

That said, there is more than just gossip that Kray-Kray Kay-Kay’s reign of destruction at LucasFilm has ended.

Frankly, I’ve heard these rumors so many times that my reflexive reaction is dismissal as more fanboy wishful thinking.

However, these rumors have come on the heels of several events in a sequence.  

First, the firing and canceling of Gina Carano blew up in Disney and Lucasfilm’s face.  

The second event was the stockholder call-in, where instead of getting asked if the Adventurer’s Club will ever open again (sadly, never) or if DoleWhip will be available at Walmart (Hell, no) he was getting roasted over Gina Carano’s firing and Disney’s obvious political double standards. 

Third, there was what had every sign of being a commissioned hit-piece in Forbes magazine.  Both the Mom-and-Pop stockholders and the institutional investors were telling Bob Chapek to unfuck this situation.

Fourth, was a rapid escalation against the “Fandom Menace” YouTube critics. There was a piece on the Rewriting Ripley podcast that claimed with perfect conviction that if you hated the third Star Wars Trilogy you were an Alt Right Nazi. Given how many liberals were on that list I found it hilarious.  Social media started actively suppressing these channels.  Although, it was interesting to note that Red Letter Media was left off the list and uber-Gamma Jack Packard came out in favor of these claims.  Regardless this was clearly a general retaliation by LucasFilm.  It was so out of the blue and over the top that it smelled like panic.

The fifth event was where things got kind of interesting.  LucasFilm’s entire social media presence went completely radio silent across all of their accounts two weeks ago.  Nothing was getting updated.  That did feel significant.

Sixth was an apparent response to the Reddit post from Bad Reboot saying Disney should release the four-hour JJ Cut (wow, four hours. Just exactly like the Snyder Cut.  What are the odds?).  The response on Reddit was a “leak” from LucasFilm claiming that there had never been any kind of serious disagreement between Queen Kathleen and Jon Favreau.  As much as a knee slapper as that one was, the follow-on was the real howler.  That Kray-Kray Kay-Kay would be delighted to have Jon take over for her when she moves on or is promoted. 

It was shortly after that, that the rumors started drifting out of Fort Mickey to the effect of; even the most glorious reign must end someday and that Kathleen Kennedy’s time had come.

And there is a flipside indicating it’s not true.  Indiana Jones 5 is moving and looks like it’s at “the train is leaving the station” point of no return.  Kathleen Kennedy is contractually tied to that film, there is no real way to remove her from it. 

There is also a flipside to the flipside.  She wouldn’t agree to go quietly without trying to get some kind of deal and Indiana Jones 5 could be part of it.  It will be a failure but I’m sure she doesn’t know that. 

 The Fandom Menace media sources are being appropriately cautious about these rumors. And so am I. We have definitely heard this one before.

Developing.