Debunked: Rumor Of Disney Erasing Sequel Trilogy; Kathleen Kennedy Out By 2022?

Recently, there have been rumors of Disney planning to erase the Star Wars sequel trilogy. These rumors have gone as far as to suggest that there will be some sort of in-universe element that would erase the events of the sequel trilogy from the timeline, which sounds similar to time travel or multiverse event media like X-Men: Days of Future Past or Crisis on Infinite Earths. However, that is not what is going on.

Grace Randolph has been reporting on the state of Star Wars. She has talked about how, rather than Kathleen Kennedy getting fired or stepping down sometime very soon, what seems more likely to happen is that her contract extension, which ends in 2021, will not be renewed, at which point Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau would step up to the plate to head Lucasfilm. On July 8, Randolph tweeted the following:

“Kathleen Kennedy NOT stepping down - instead almost certain her contract, which now ends in 2021, will not be renewed.

“Just like Ep 7-9 won’t be erased but more ignored.

“I’ve been reporting all for weeks, people are just putting clickbait spins on the real stories”

On July 13, the day that The Bad Batch series was officially announced, Randolph put out a video on her YouTube channel Beyond The Trailer, talking about how that announcement pertains to what she has been reporting. According to her, this is part of Lucasfilm’s initiative to shift gears as the focus goes away from the sequel trilogy. In the video, she said the following:

"So, no, Kathleen Kennedy, as I tweeted, isn't getting fired and they are not erasing her trilogy, because big business simply doesn't work that way. People make very careful moves in big business. You don't want to have enemies. You have to understand how business works to see how everything is going to be able to move forward. So instead of 'firing' and 'erasing,' it looks like they are not going to renew her contract a second time when the current extension runs out in 2021."

At a glance, it seems that the focus is shifting away from sequel trilogy-related content as far as the onscreen content is concerned. We are getting the sequel trilogy characters in The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special and the 2021 video game LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga. However, since those are not set within the actual canon of Star Wars, it feels like it might as well be accurate to say that the sequel trilogy is being ignored. Its characters can pop up in books and comics, but by and large, the plans to focus on Star Wars as a television franchise seem focused on telling stories that push sequel trilogy threads forward.

The gap between Episode VI and Episode VII may be filled with such content as The Mandalorian, but that show feels very disconnected from the sequels and feels like it will tie in more to The Clone Wars if familiar characters are indeed arriving on the show. And if we are getting the rumored Ben Solo series, it is possible that it may not take place too close to the sequel trilogy. It certainly would not push the story forward. With the energy seemingly focused more on live-action and animated shows that could potentially tie into each other, the attention of the Star Wars audience would shift to the earlier eras. From a marketing standpoint, one could see this strategy making sense. There was a lot of mixed reception over the sequel trilogy, which has not built quite the amount of reverence that such content as The Clone Wars and The Mandalorian have.

The next films will probably be set in an era unrelated to the sequel trilogy as Lucasfilm tries to expand the Star Wars universe and assess what the overall history of the universe is. While the door may not be closed permanently for sequel-related content, it sure does seem like fans are being given diversions before that era can ever be explored further and beyond. Again, the future is ever in motion, so all we can do is wait.

Written By Steven Shinder

Syndicated from Culture Slate