Some of you may have already seen this but in the past week Leslye Headland made headlines in the Star Wars community again, when an old clip from two years ago resurfaced of Headland talking about George Lucas Headland said....
“This is like what we understand to be Star Wars. The idea that like that only came from George Lucas. That only George Lucas holds the key for what we understand to be Star Wars is just untrue. And I think the prequels are an excellent example of that.”
😕😕😕...I can't even begin to wrap my head around this quote. George created Star Wars there would be no Star Wars if it wasn't for George Lucas, so if George doesn't understand it then who the hell does? I say this as a PT fan the OT is the king of Star Wars nothing can or ever will top it, the PT has it's fair share of problems & George certainly didn't execute things the way he did with the OT but the PT did stay true to what Star Wars was. (I may eventually make a post delving into George & the PT backlash.)
Theory made a video on this & as he pointed out George let other authors write books & he allowed them to create pretty much what they wanted occasionally Lucas would intervene & ask stuff to be removed but generally writers like Timothy Zhan, James Luceno, & Drew Karpyshyn were in total control of their work & they added lore & depth to what Lucas created.
Headland continued...
“And the idea that like when you are hiring a director that everyone is sitting in there waiting for George Lucas and not for the person who is going to know to hire Ralph McQuarrie. That’s the problem. That’s the misogyny and the problem with the auteur myth as it stands today.”“Because they are not thinking this is the person that will hire the right people, and this is the person that will be able to create the look books and direct people to get them to that place. They’re just thinking, ‘Do you have all the answers?’ And the truth is that nobody does and anybody that says they do is lying,” she said.
Now, Headland may be getting to the root of what the problem is at Lucasfilm with this quote she said "That’s the problem. That’s the misogyny and the problem with the auteur myth as it stands today.” George set out to tell a modern myth based off all religions & mythologies to influence young people & teach them morals, that there is a right & wrong & there's is something bigger than us out there & it ties us all together no matter how different our spiritual beliefs are. I think there is definitely a portion of Lucasfilm heads who want to remove the spirituality aspect of Star Wars which is the heart of the franchise, & Headland hasn't been shy about it either the following comes from an article from Boundingintothecomics....
Headland said “It is unusual to point to pieces of pop culture that have representations of extreme spirituality. The concept of God is such a heavy concept. The concept of religion is such a really oppressive one, especially for people like myself and many, many others.” This is a huge red flag for a number of reasons. First off, the Jedi Order are a practicing religion, and obviously they made some mistakes, the members of which can be tempted and fall to the dark side, but the core of the religion and its beliefs are what empower Luke Skywalker to still believe that his father has good within him and that he can be redeemed. It’s the religion of the Jedi Order and Luke’s faith in it that does indeed redeem Darth Vader and bring about the destruction of the Emperor in Return of the Jedi. The religion is the opposite of oppressive it frees Vader and Luke from the tyranny of the Emperor, which George Lucas has compared to the devil.
My final thoughts 🤔....
Leslye Headland, Kathleen Kennedy & the heads at Disney & Lucasfilm are the one that truly doesn't understand Star Wars they never have & they never will, & that's why they continue to have flops. There's more to George Lucas than Star Wars but there isn't more to Star Wars than George Lucas.