For the first time in ten years, people allowed themselves to hope for the future of LucasFilm.

Kaffeine Kennedy can't have that.

I think Clownfish TV said that this particular "reporter" is a dyed-in-the-wool Disney shill and a Kathleen Kennedy shill specifically.

If you don't believe Clownfish, check out this opening labial ball-washing:

I thought I'd seen it all in trade journalism, but the piranha-like frenzy on Kathleen Kennedy and the successor speculation that followed Matt Belloni's Puck report that Disney was putting her out to pasture is a new one on me. Belloni for years has been beating on Kennedy like she owes him money, and this week he reported Kennedy was retiring. I recall he essentially did the same thing more than a year ago, and yet here she still is, producing The Mandalorian movie and prepping the Shawn Levy-directed Star Wars film that Ryan Gosling is circling, as well as numerous other film and streaming projects with A-list participants.

Still, the trades followed with gusto, dishing speculative reporting on who might succeed Kennedy. The takeaway was chaos and that Kennedy was being pushed. The reality is different and far more orderly.

According to insiders, Kennedy has been working on a succession plan for a couple years, eyeing candidates from within in process with Bob Iger and Alan Bergman... I admire Belloni's hustle and ability to turn over hard ground, but his penchant for defining industry people like Kennedy in disparaging ways, well, I just don't understand that.

...

Kennedy arguably is the most successful female producer/executive in Hollywood history. She has produced more than 70 films that have collected 120 Oscar noms and 25 wins, and she herself was awarded the honorary Oscar with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, with eight other Oscar noms. Her resume is dotted with classics including Jurassic Park, The Sixth Sense, the Indiana Jones franchise, E.T., Munich, Lincoln, The Color Purple, War of the Worlds, Poltergeist, Schindler's List, the Back to the Future franchise and so many others. While it has always been a challenge to please the Star Wars faithful and there have been some misfires, the five Star Wars films she has produced have grossed nearly $6 billion, with streaming series successes topped by The Mandalorian and Andor.

Sorry, Matt, the woman is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, not someone who deserves to be batted around like a piñata. She also deserves to own her own narrative and demystify this pseudo-drama. Deadline gave Kennedy that opportunity, catching her just before she headed off to be honored tonight with husband Frank Marshall at the Oscar Wilde Awards.

DEADLINE: We've read all these speculative reports that you are out, that there's a frenzy for the next person who's going to take over Lucasfilm. What is the truth?

KATHLEEN KENNEDY: The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that's important to say. I am not retiring. What's happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bo

...

DEADLINE: This flurry of press coverage, it sounds like chaos. What's the reality?

KENNEDY: Chaos? There has never been any chaos because we know exactly what the plan is.

Really? It didn't seem like your make-it-up-on-the-day sequel trilogy had a plan.

...

DEADLINE: I recall these same retirement predictions were rendered a while ago, and you reupped and here you are. What do you make of this fixation on your job status?

KENNEDY: I truly don't know. And any discussion previously about me retiring or quitting or any of those things, that's complete rumor mill because through all these reports, I have just continued doing my job and continuing my contract. Nothing unusual. It all has just been manufactured.

I can explain why people talk about this: Because everyone's shocked she wasn't fired eight years ago.

And we all know why she wasn't: She wears the +3 Ring of DEI Protection and the +2 Vest of Post-#MeToo Eternal Job Security for Stronk Women.

...

KENNEDY: It is something I think about all the time. It's fascinating to think about how you sustain a brand, especially Star Wars, which is just about to celebrate its 50th anniversary....

Then when you have a brand that's this expansive, you're also -- and this is something we work very hard at -- you try to find different entry points for different generations because that's what Star Wars has always been. It's a very generational brand, and we want to sustain that, and we work hard to sustain that.

This just in: Star Wars toys are rotting on the shelves at discounters like Ollie's because no one under 40 cares about Star Wars any longer.

Not a single question about The Acoylte. She keeps bringing up The Mandalorian, which was briefly a success before she ordered it be improved to appeal to The Modern Audience.

On to The Toxic Fandom. Or Toxic Former Fandom.

DEADLINE: You've got a long resume of big movies. Compared to that, how much tougher is the challenge of so much public scrutiny and second guessing by the rabid fan base? It's not uncommon to develop a project with big names who fall out when visions don't align, but they get reported as a big implosion.

KENNEDY: What you just said, though, is so interesting to me, Mike, because that is the development. It doesn't matter if you're doing Star Wars or anything else. What's troubling and frustrating is that our development gets scrutinized, and I don't know any other production company where their development gets scrutinized like that. It's very hard for anything to happen within Star Wars without some aspect of it becoming public before you even want it to become public. So I guess managing the message in some way is also quite a challenge because, of course, not every single thing we put in development we going to make. That's not unusual. We want to make those things that we feel are the best. We want to make those things that, as time passes, feel relevant to what the audience is responding to. So there's constant discussion around that. So yeah, that's a tricky one because a lot of the scrutiny around Star Wars and the negativity has been about development. Of course, we're going to develop lots of different things with an understanding that not everything gets made.

She babbles about all the obviously-canceled projects she announced, insisting they're all still in development. (No word on Rion Johnon's or Patty Jenkin's movies, though.)

She insists that Taika Watiti is still working on a Star Wars movie, even after he puked up Thor: Love and Thunder.

KENNEDY: Well, I keep waiting for Taika [Waititi], and he is working with another writer now. He's so busy. I love him. I think if we ever do get a script from Taika, it's going to be fantastic. I already saw a first act that I loved, but tying him down, it's tricky.

DEADLINE: I still remember seeing his Thor: Ragnarok, entering with low expectations, watching his exuberant vision and thinking, "This is what you want when you go to a movie theater on a Saturday night."

KENNEDY: It's so true. And that's exactly the tone we're always looking for with filmmakers who can pull that off. It's not like they're a dime a dozen. You're really trying to find the diamond in the rough and he's one of them.

...

DEADLINE: Any regrets?

KENNEDY: No, I mean far from regrets....

DEADLINE: Two final questions. Will you step out as Lucasfilm boss this year?

KENNEDY: We really don't know at this stage. There's so much going on, Mike. I don't know.

DEADLINE: When it happens, who'll make the decision?

KENNEDY: Me. It's my decision. This is 100 percent my decision.

Meanwhile, Captain America is such a bomb that it's literally collapsing the movie theaters it's shown in.

Thanks goodness there were only two people in the theater during the main night-time showing, huh?

Marvel saved some lives by making its movies so unwatchable.

The media crows that Captain America will "win" the box office for the third weekend in a row... versus no competition at all. It will make a mere fourteen million dollars this weekend. The bottom has fallen out. One media source is at least willing to admit it "wins" the weekend during a "sleepy" period at the box office.

It is just barely crawling over the $300 million worldwide box office line, which means it will probably not make anywhere close to $400 million in total.

The film cost at least $250 million to make and some claim it cost over $300 million.

Marvel's latest release, Captain America: Brave New World, has faced a steep decline in its second weekend, yet it is on track to cross the $300 million milestone globally. Starring Anthony Mackie and Harrison Ford, the film saw a 68.3% drop in the US and a 61.8% decline internationally, signaling a sluggish run despite a strong start.

Was it strong?

It made 87.5 million over four days (Thurs-Sun) in its opening weekend. This is not strong for a would-be blockbuster.