Is Kathleen Kennedy Getting her Contract Renewed?

Such a move would be fatal to what is left of the Star Wars fanbase.  She is the most reviled personality ever connected with the franchise to include freaking Jar-Jar.  Renew her contract and you may well as pander to the Reylos because you will have absolutely no one left.  Except, the Reylos have already dipped out, after ROS.

Both the Mom & Pop and the institutional investors are clearly hostile to the idea. A number of Bob Chapek’s reforms would be reversed if he renewed Kray-Kray Kay-Kay’s contract and it would seemingly (put a pin in that one) weaken his own position within the company.  Green lighting and fast-tracking Indiana Jones 5, only makes sense if it was a face-saving gesture to smooth the way for her exit from Disney.

However, the usually reliable Mikey Sutton has put his dick on the table by claiming that his sources say that Kathleen Kennedy’s contract will be, contrary to business and common sense, renewed at the end of October.

First let me remind you, that while usually reliable, Sutton is the only one saying this at the moment.  If WDWPro chimes in, then it’s a done deal but he hasn’t said anything as of this writing.

If true, why would Chapek do it?

STOP!!!

I know a bunch of you quit reading and are about to run down to the comments to write about Kathleen Kennedy’s vault of pedo-blackmail material but think about this for a second.

Look at the risk/reward for Kennedy.  If this vault does exist, then it is a MAD nuclear option. She can’t press that button without risk of self-destruction.  

Exercise it once on one person and every other rich and powerful person in the vault knows she can’t keep her mouth shut.  Her continued existence is a threat to all of them. “Say hello to Epstein for me, because Mister Sandman is coming.”

However, there are blackmail materials other than the type that would get you killed if you tried to use it.  And she has been in Hollywood since the mid-Seventies when no one had the brakes on.  She probably does have dirt on most of the big names who have lasted thirty years.

But she probably doesn’t have anything at all on Chapek.

The fundamental problem with a Chapek blackmail scenario is that he was never part of that world. He is the first CEO of Disney that did NOT come up through the Hollywood side of the company.  The Club never had a clue about this guy until he was suddenly in Walt’s seat.  Sure, the moneymen knew about him but Hollywood didn’t have a hint that he was coming.  He never interacted with them on a daily basis until last year. He was a UFO until he had the job.

Getting back to my question of why do it?

Chapek knows about all of the downsides firsthand.  Why do something so massively against his own self-interest?

Because it’s not against self-interest.  Not anymore.

Recently, I cut out some Black Pill speculation from an article I was writing on the new Disney Civil War.  Here it is now:

“There is one nightmare scenario for Star Wars fans. Kennedy might get her contract renewed.  Yeah, I know but hear me out.  The risk/reward for Kennedy if she backs Feige and CAA is all risk and no reward.  But if she backs Chapek, then the reward side of the equation favors her strongly.  Chapek is the one that can do that.”

Scenario: “Bob!” A rather startled Kathleen Kennedy exclaims.  “I really wasn’t expecting to see you.”

“It’s a surprise visit, my dear,” Chapek is sounding remarkably like Scar from the Lion King. “I’d heard you’d had a spot of bother with your Indy movie thing.”

“You know I have,” she replies acidly, sounding much like Cruella.  “Harrison’s hurt and it’s probably a career ender.  I will get this movie in the can but it’s not going to be ready until after my contract expires.”

“Which means you are not going out on as big of a win as you were hoping for,” he purrs smoothly.  “Somebody else will be getting a lot of the credit for all of your back and shoulder breaking hard work.”

“Yesss,” she hisses at him.

“If only I could help, my dear,” he replies with the coldest sympathy.  “But I’m up to my eyebrows with this Black Widow business.  Mister Lourd at CAA is causing me all sorts mischief.”

She looks up sharply.  A shark that has smelled blood in the water.  “Bryan is causing you problems?” She laughs knowingly.  “I’ve known him for decades. I could tell you some stories about him.”

“Could you? Indeed?”

I’d wondered if something had changed behind the scenes because Kevin Feige suddenly went from pissed off to being a lamb about his movie releases last week.  If Kennedy is suddenly in Chapek’s corner that means Frank Marshal is now backing him too.  That stops a lot of the momentum that was building against Chapek.

True, you still have a ton of problems with Star Wars but it was wrecked anyway.  Is it going to be more wrecked now?  He has had to write off billions this year, why worry about a lousy four billion that got spent nine years ago?

Bottomline: Renewing her contract is possible but there still might not be anything to it.

Developing.