Star Wars Editor Marcia Lucas Has Some Incredibly Harsh Words About The Sequel Series

Long considered one of the greatest movie franchises in history, "Star Wars" has nevertheless experienced ups and downs over the course of nine mainline movies, two live action spin-off films (so far), a few television movies featuring Ewoks, and several television shows (both live-action, like "The Mandalorian," and animated, like "The Bad Batch"). Fans tend to be united in their love for the three original films, but opinions start to diverge about any productions created after that. That's especially evident when it comes to how things have changed since Disney purchased Lucasfilm for $4 billion in 2012 (via USA Today). 

And that's not just true of fans: it's also true of people who have a certain level of insider knowledge about the universe, as well. In a new book, "Howard Kazanjian: A Producer's Life," released on Sept. 14, 2021 by the late J.W. Rinzler, it turns out that Marcia Lucas — the Academy Award-winning editor of the original "Star Wars" trilogy (via IMDb) — has decided to weigh in on how the galaxy far, far away has changed ... and she's pulling no punches. 

In an interview that took place between "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" and "Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker," the retired movie editor has some pretty harsh things to say about recent developments in the space fantasy films, and it also sounds like she wants to be involved in their future. Specifically, she criticizes Lucasfilm's current president, Kathleen Kennedy, and director J.J. Abrams, regarding storyline decisions in the new films. 

Marcia Lucas is George Lucas' first wife — but her accomplishments go way beyond her relationship to the creator of "Star Wars." Once called "the secret weapon of 'Star Wars'" by SF Gate, she was a sought-after film editor in the 1970s. In "Star Wars: Episode 1 – A New Hope," she is credited for the idea to kill off Obi-Wan Kenobi (Alec Guinness) as well as editing of the final X-wing action sequence in the trenches of the Death Star. She also edited "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" before the Lucas' marriage ended in 1983. While "Star Wars" was the film that netted her an Academy Award, she had previously been nominated in 1974 for "American Graffiti." 

In the new book, Lucas does expresses a fondness for Kathleen Kennedy (via Indie Wire). However, she doesn't think the current executives understand what makes "Star Wars" work. 

"Now that she's running Lucasfilm and making movies, it seems to me that Kathy Kennedy and J.J. Abrams don't have a clue about 'Star Wars.' They don't get it. And J.J. Abrams is writing these stories — when I saw that movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious. I was furious when they killed Han Solo. Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. I thought, 'You don't get the Jedi story. You don't get the magic of 'Star Wars'," she said.

However, Lucas' problems didn't end there — and it seem like the next movie only deepened her negative feelings on the sequel trilogy.

As Marcia Lucas continued, she detailed her problems with "The Last Jedi," the second entry in the sequel trilogy. "They have Luke disintegrate. They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don't have Princess Leia anymore. And they're spitting out movies every year. And they think it's important to appeal to a woman's audience, so now their main character is this female, who's supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don't know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is. It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Just terrible. Awful. You can quote me ... J.J. Abrams, Kathy Kennedy — talk to me.'"

Given that many people — including Mark Hamill, as he told Film Freak in 2015 — give Marcia Lucas the credit for reining George in and being "the warmth and the heat of those films," maybe someone at Disney should give her a call ASAP.