It was, of course, Kathleen Kennedy. Again.
Disney invested billions of dollars in the Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge design and construction, based on a fictional world called “Batuu.” They hyped up technology and immersive elements meant to enhance the guest experience and allow for fans to spend hours in Galaxy’s Edge…And now, after just a few years in operation, new leadership at the top is completely changing the entire plan behind Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge. In the process, admitting they completely missed the mark with their multi-billion dollar project.
One former top executive at Walt Disney World once explained in an interview why Galaxy’s Edge focused on the new trilogy and not the beloved original movies and characters. Because Kathleen Kennedy gave awful advice to Bob Iger.
“We got a call one day,” said former WDW VP Dan Cockerell. “They said, ‘Well, we got some news for you all.’ And the Imagineering guys, they’ve heard this line many, many times during their careers. And I had never been through this.” “They said, ‘Well, yesterday Bob Iger met with Kathleen Kennedy, who as a lot people may know was sort of George Lucas’ protégé and headed up Lucasfilm. And they had a conversation. They had a meeting. And Kathleen Kennedy, her point of view was, there are way more Disney Star Wars stories ahead of us than behind us. So we really should think about do we want to build a Tatooine, and build what all the fifty-somethings remember Star Wars is or do we want to build something else which is going to appeal to all the upcoming generations who are going to know the new stories.'”
Don’t focus the land on characters people like, focus it instead on the new movies, Kennedy said. And Iger listened. Well, those new movies have come and gone, and “Star Wars” has never meant less in the national conversation. Sure enough, under new CEO Josh D’Amaro, Disney announced this month that they were bringing Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Luke Skywalker into Galaxy’s Edge, as well as finally incorporating John Williams’ beloved score from the original films.
That’s how you know they’re admitting they made a gigantic mistake listening to Kathleen Kennedy.
Bringing these characters into Galaxy’s Edge makes no logical or thematic sense, particularly since they’re being portrayed as their younger selves from the original trilogy. But Disney is desperate to make their gigantic investment in Galaxy’s Edge worth it, so they’re hoping characters people actually like will bring new fans and keep them there longer.
It’s a series of unforced errors. They made mediocre movies that have been mostly forgotten, assumed that people cared about Rey and Kylo Ren or Fin or Poe Dameron, and then bet billions of dollars that their newer stories would be more popular moving forward than the old ones.
Whenever you see an executive making an argument about the need to appeal to the new audience, which is young, superficial, and mostly hypothetical, at the expense of the old audience, which is older, better-off, larger, and loyal, you know a business disaster is in the making. Although, in this case, the ill wind did blow some good for Nick Cole’s book sales due to the fortuitous name chosen by Disney.
It’s necessary to appeal to new arguments in order to grow. That’s why we try new things. That’s why I’ve got something like five different sites now. But never, ever, are those things done at the expense of the tried-and-true elements of the community. Even to this day, I still usually post here first.