- Elon Musk isn't happy with what Lucasfilm CEO Kathleen Kennedy has done with Star Wars.
- Kennedy has been criticized by fans for her progressive themes and focus on a female protagonist.
- Musk said Saturday that he thinks Kennedy is “very biased against men.”
Elon Musk isn't happy with what Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has done with the Star Wars franchise.
“She's more dangerous than the Death Star!” Musk wrote on his social media platform “X” on Friday, responding to a meme calling Kennedy a “franchise killer.”
The Academy Award-winning film producer was named president of Lucasfilm after Disney acquired the company in 2012. However, Kennedy's leadership at Lucasfilm has drawn mixed reactions from Star Wars fans.
Kennedy was initially able to deliver box office hits like 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2016's Rogue One, but his subsequent sci-fi projects for Lucasfilm fell flat.
According to Deadline, Star Wars ended in a box office disaster in 2018 with Solo: A Star Wars Story.
The series' foray into streaming has also seen mixed results, with shows like “The Book of Boba Fett” receiving poor reviews from audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes.
And Kennedy's focus on progressive themes and female leads in her Star Wars projects seems to be a major thorn in Musk's side.
“Kathleen Kennedy is extremely biased against men,” he wrote in a post on X on Saturday, referring to an interview Kennedy gave to The New York Times last month.
During the interview, Kennedy defended Leslye Headland, director and writer of the newest Star Wars TV series, “The Acolyte,” after fans slammed Headland and called her “woke.”
“It's a scary thing to operate as a big franchise these days, with social media and high expectations,” Kennedy told the Times.
“I think a lot of women who enter the Star Wars universe have a harder time in this regard, because the fanbase is so male-dominated, and it can get very personally attacked,” she added.
Certainly, Kathleen's directing of Star Wars isn't the only reason why the series is believed to have declined in popularity among fans.
In 2019, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger said the company may have released too many Star Wars projects after acquiring Lucasfilm. Iger stepped down as CEO in 2020 but returned in 2022.
“I wonder if we put too much on the market too quickly,” Iger said in a New York Times report published in September 2019.
Musk's criticism of Kennedy isn't the first time he has expressed discomfort with what he calls “woke” ideology and those promoting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.
“DEI is just another way of saying racism. Shame on those who use it,” Musk said in a January post on X.
Kennedy isn't the first executive to draw Musk's ire over progressive corporate initiatives: Musk blasted fellow billionaire Mark Cuban when he voiced his support for corporate DEI initiatives earlier this year.
“Mark Cuban is desperately trying to tout his 'virtue' but his hypocrisy isn't convincing anyone,” Musk said in an X post published in January.
Representatives for Musk and Kennedy did not immediately respond to BI's request for comment sent outside normal business hours.
