Star Wars editor Marcia Lucas has hit out at the Disney-produced films in the franchise, saying Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and director J.J. Abrams “don’t have a clue”.

Lucas spoke to J.W. Rinzler for his new book Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life about The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, commenting on the decision to kill off Han Solo and Luke Skywalker in particular.

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“I Like Kathleen. I always liked her,” Lucas said of Kathleen Kennedy. “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.”

She added: “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?‘”

Marcia Lucas on the Disney produced Star Wars films. pic.twitter.com/MFE9f8fFpG

— Jedi scum (@jediscum83) September 19, 2021

Marcia Lucas won an Oscar for editing the first Star Wars film, alongside Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew. She went on to co-edit Return of the Jedi, and was not credited for her work on The Empire Strikes Back.

She was also married to Star Wars creator George Lucas between 1969 and 1983.

J.W. Rinzler was a former executive editor at LucasFilm, and released his book about Kazanjian on September 14. He passed away not long before the book was released.