Kathleen Kennedy has opened up about her years as president of Lucasfilm after stepping down this week, including her experience working with Rian Johnson in the highly divisive Star Wars: The Last Jedi. According to Kennedy, the filmmaker stepped back from the franchise due to other work commitments, but he also got "spooked" by the "online negativity" he received back in 2017.
"Once he made the Netflix deal and went off to start doing the Knives Out films, that has occupied a huge amount of his time," Kennedy told Deadline, using director Shawn Levy – who is helming the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter – as another example. "That’s the other thing that happens here. After Shawn and I started talking about Star Wars, Stranger Things kicks in and he was completely consumed for a while by that. That's what happened with Rian."
