Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Mike Redmond | News | February 27, 2025
Following the news of Kathleen Kennedy reportedly retiring from Lucasfilm by the end of the year, a shortlist has already emerged for her potential replacement. While it’s not surprising to see Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s names, I was not prepared for Kevin Feige.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, insiders believe the Marvel Studios head is the best choice because Feige has “shown an uncanny ability to balancing corporate needs with an understanding of a core IP.” I don’t know about you, but those words just filled me with excitement. Corporate needs and core IP? Hot dog!
Snark aside, Feige is as much a lazy choice as Favreau and Filoni, but with the added bonus of making absolutely zero sense at the moment. There was a time when Feige was the Marvel mastermind who pulled off the unprecedented task of delivering The Infinity Saga to rousing success. It’s a move that will probably never happen again in Hollywood and could’ve easily gone south in a million different places along the way. But that was five years ago, and in the time since, Marvel has been very publicly bleeding out. If Feige is going to step off the train, it won’t be until at least 2027 when Avengers: Secret Wars drops and finally puts The Multiverse Saga out of its misery.
On top of the timing issue, Star Wars is in worse shape than Marvel right now. Its last two series, The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew, couldn’t bring in enough viewers to earn a renewal. Meanwhile, The Mandalorian is being punted into theaters for a Hail Mary pass to get butts into seats again. At the time of writing, Deadpool & Wolverine director Shawn Levy is reportedly slapping together a Star Wars movie starring Ryan Gosling and a new trilogy centered on Rey is supposedly being cooked up. Although, I’d bet money on that last one going out the door with Kathleen Kennedy, and I say that as someone who genuinely loved Rey. If The Rise of Skywalker hadn’t been a wet fart that tried to placate the worst of the fandom, the Sequel Trilogy would be looked at much more fondly. The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi worked!
But back to my point, unlike Marvel, less is more with Star Wars, and unfortunately, the franchise found that out the hard way after whipping up its own fatigue problem on Disney+. In fact, you could easily argue that the Marvel-ization of Star Wars led to its current state. Christ, the shows started having end-credits scenes! I’m just some guy on the internet, but it seems pretty clear that what worked for Marvel (until it didn’t) doesn’t easily transfer over to Star Wars. Kevin Feige is probably very aware of that fact, so the big question is does he even want to trade one hot potato for another?
