Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige is Developing a STAR WARS Film with Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy

Kevin Feige is Developing a Star Wars Film for Lucasfilm

Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy are developing a new Star Wars film set in the familiar galaxy far, far away. Walt Disney Studios co-chairman and chief creative officer Alan Horn had this to say when asked about this collaboration: “With the close of the Skywalker Saga, Kathy is pursuing a new era in Star Wars storytelling, and knowing what a die-hard fan Kevin is, it made sense for these two extraordinary producers to work on a Star Wars film together.”

Feige is a great film producer. His stable vision helped propel the Marvel Cinematic Universe to billions of dollars in revenue and has delighted fans across the world. Numerous missteps have befallen Disney’s Star Wars universe:

“Disney chairman Bob Iger conceded in a recent New York Times interview that the studio had made mistakes. “I just think that we might’ve put a little bit too much in the marketplace too fast,” he said.”

Looking to Feige, with his track record and being an in-house film producer, is a logical choose.

Too many Star Wars films placed into the movie theater marketplace too quickly, a.k.a. Star Wars Fatigue, is not the problem. It’s the quality of what Disney has been placing into the marketplace that is the problem. Marvel Studios opens two-to-three films in-theaters a year. Outside of horrendous Captain Marvel (Iron Man 3 and Thor 2 I have not seen), all of the Marvel films have been financial and critical winners.

In 2019, “Feige had discussed a foray into the Star Wars universe in a late summer meeting with Kennedy and studio co-chairmen Alan Horn and Alan Bergman, sources say.”

Obviously Kennedy, Horn, and Bergman knew that Disney’s Star Wars‘ universe was hemorrhaging in the box office, with critics, and with fans. They also realized that a drastic change was necessary, a new direction, that someone with vision and the ability to execute that long-term mission was needed – hence Feige. Feige has the ability to right the Star Wars‘ ship, to produce, and shepherd a well-rounded and enthralling film. Whether that comic book movie production ability is transferable to a Star Wars film remains to be seen.

Hollywood Reporter‘s Kim Masters has these “curious” lines in her story:

“Skywalker, otherwise known as Episode IX, is meant to be the final installment of the series that was first launched by George Lucas in 1977. It is also meant to win back fans after the last sequel trilogy entry, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, divided audiences, even though reviews were largely positive and the film grossed $1.3 billion worldwide.”

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker should be designed to be a great story not to win back the disillusioned. By starting off Skywalker with that mindset, you are pandering rather than doing the chief thing of a narrative – telling a compelling story.  Feige, and his cohorts, can tell a compelling story. If they can do for Infinity War‘s Thanos, they can do that with Disney’s Star Wars.

With this move by Disney, Feige, and Kennedy, scintillating questions occur: is all of this just a clever cover story? Is something subterranean going on? Is Feige being groomed to take over for Kathleen Kennedy when her current contract is not renewed?

Disney’s shareholders can not be happy with the direction the Star Wars universe has taken under the management of Kennedy. Feige may be the escape-hatch they have been looking for. This is all speculation at this point, but with all of the data points available, it makes sense.

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