How many times have we seen this before: When a project is about to fail or has failed, the woke of Hollywood blame the fans?
Well, that is exactly what is happening again with Star Wars and the new Disney+ series The Acolyte, which likely will be another massive bomb at the cost of nearly $200 million from Kathleen Kennedy and Leslye Headland.
A mere week before the show debuts, the studio and the trades are already blaming fans in interviews and articles.
Update: An early reaction says the show is horrible and kills Star Wars, and the Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score is the lowest for Star Wars on Disney+.
“A Lot of Women in Star Wars Struggle With Fan Attacks”
The NY Times posted an article and interview with Leslye Headland which also includes quotes from Kathleen Kennedy (read it in full on archive.org) titled: Leslye Headland Hopes the Force Is With ‘The Acolyte’.
Variety followed up with their own article using quotes from the NY Times, titled: Lucasfilm Boss Kathleen Kennedy Says ‘A Lot of Women’ in ‘Star Wars’ Struggle With Fan Attacks ‘Because of the Fan Base Being So Male Dominated.’”
“Storytelling does need to be representative of all people”
The NY Times article confirms The Acolyte series is woke as fuck as Leslye Headland completely injects herself into Star Wars, and Kathleen Kennedy confirms it’s all about diversity and not quality story.
“My belief is that storytelling does need to be representative of all people,” Kennedy told the outlet. “That’s an easy decision for me.”
Well, how has that worked out?
Under Kennedy, there have been at least a half dozen canceled projects, and ratings on Disney+ are in the gutter. Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed Disney is pulling back on both Star Wars and Marvel. You don’t pull back on something successful. Kathleen Kennedy’s time as Lucasfilm president has long been overdue, and she should be fired as she’s lost Disney arguably billions of dollars, which includes Indiana Jones, Willow, fans unsubscribing from Disney+, and the loss of Star Wars movie and merchandise revenue.
The Acolyte is woke as fuck
Regarding Leslye Headland, did you know she worked as the personal assistant of Harvey Weinstein? How come the trades never mention that?
The NY Times article reveals how woke The Acolyte is as apparently Headland at first turned in a normal Star Wars script but then Kennedy told her to make it woke as fuck:
“You’ve written a great ‘Star Wars’ show,” Kennedy told her in 2019 in response to early scripts. “Now go write a Leslye Headland show.”
The article includes the following red flags:
- Says old-school Star Wars fans can seem unpleasable
- Tells and entirely new story that showcases women and people of color
- “Embraces what some people call ‘New Star Wars,’ an era defined by diversity and expansion beyond the Skywalker saga”
- “Jodie Turner-Smith plays the lesbian leader of a regal coven of witches”
- Headland cast her wife, Rebecca Henderson, as Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh, giving her a lightsaber that can transform into a whip
- Headland added a writer who knew nothing about and wasn’t a Star Wars fans; so it would “invite in new fans — people like me,” said the writer
Blame men
The article makes a point of stating “a loud, primordial part of the ‘Star Wars’ fandom has pushed back in predictable fashion” and points out one comment on The Acolyte trailer to push their point:
“Why are there so many women, girls and minority characters increasingly dominating the ranks of Jedi?” reads a comment on “The Acolyte” trailer, with others expressing a similar worldview.
The article adds:
It is a version of the same misogyny and racism that greeted Rey, the female Jedi (played by Daisy Ridley) who made her debut in “The Force Awakens” in 2015, and that drove Kelly Marie Tran off social media when she appeared in “The Last Jedi” (2017). Kathleen Kennedy, who runs Lucasfilm, has also experienced it, with “South Park” harshly attacking her in an episode last year.
Too male dominated: Trolls nickname the series ‘The Wokelyte’
Kathleen Kennedy blames the franchise for being too male dominated, with the article stating “some trolls have nicknamed Headland’s series ‘The Wokelyte’”:
“Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation — it’s terrifying,” Kennedy continued. “I think Leslye has struggled a little bit with it. I think a lot of the women who step into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with this a bit more. Because of the fan base being so male dominated, they sometimes get attacked in ways that can be quite personal.”
Blame game: If you don’t like the series, you are racist
Leslye Headland calls fans who won’t like the show racist:
“I stand by my empathy for ‘Star Wars’ fans,” she wrote. “But I want to be clear. Anyone who engages in bigotry, racism or hate speech … I don’t consider a fan.”
Injects her personal life into the show
So Leslye Headland apparently had a rough time in high school and has a horrible relationship with her sister, which makes its way into The Acolyte (which explains the woke non-binary “villain – spoilers):
“I have a very strained relationship with my youngest sister, and I feel like one of the reasons it is strained is that we both see each other as the bad guy,” Headland said. “And if I was going to tell a story about bad guys, it seemed to me that the place to start should be a familial relationship where one person is adamantly convinced of her correctness and the other person is also adamantly convinced of her correctness.” “We don’t speak,” Headland added. “I think this will be a surprise to her.”
What she lacked in experience, she made up for with “Star Wars” geekdom. Headland became a “Star Wars” superfan as a teenager. It was an apocalyptic period of her life, or at least it felt that way. “I had no friends,” she recalled. “I ate my lunch in the bathroom.”
