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‘Star Wars’ Editor Marcia Lucas Slams Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams and Sequel Trilogy: ‘They Don’t Get It’

Marcia Lucas, the Oscar-winning editor of the original “Star Wars,” wasn’t very happy with Disney’s sequel trilogy. She said producer Kathleen Kennedy and director J.J. Abrams “don’t get it” and “the storylines are terrible” in an interview for J.W. Rinzler’s book “Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life,” which examines the prolific producer’s life, including his time on the “Star Wars” franchise.

“I like Kathleen. I always liked her. She was full of beans. She was really smart and really bright. Really wonderful woman. And I liked her husband, Frank. I liked them a lot. 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.’ You’re getting rid of Han Solo?'” Lucas says in the book.

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She served as an editor on “Star Wars,” for which she won the Oscar for film editing in 1977, and “Return of the Jedi,” and she was an uncredited editor on “The Empire Strikes Back.” Lucas was credited with editing the thrilling Battle of Yavin and Death Star assault sequences in the first film of the trilogy. Her other editing credits include “Taxi Driver,” for which she earned an BAFTA nod, “American Graffiti,” which nabbed her an Oscar nom, “Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore” and “New York, New York.” She was also married to “Star Wars” creator George Lucas from 1969-1983.

Having worked on the original trilogy, she criticized the deaths of Han Solo, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa and Rey, played by Daisy Ridley in Disney’s trilogy of sequels.

“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,'” Lucas says in the book.

Read an excerpt of “Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life,” which is now available to purchase.

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