Elon Musk starts beef with Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy, says ‘Star Wars’ boss is ‘deadlier than the Death Star’

• It seems Elon Musk isn’t a fan of what Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy has done with Star Wars.

• Kennedy has been criticized by fans for her focus on progressive themes and female protagonists.

• Musk said Saturday that he thinks Kennedy is “super bigoted against men.”

Elon Musk doesn’t like what Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has done with the Star Wars franchise.

“She’s deadlier than the Death Star!” Musk wrote on his social media platform X on Friday in response to a meme that called Kennedy a “franchise killer.”

The Oscar-winning film producer was named president of Lucasfilm after the company was bought by Disney in 2012. But Kennedy’s leadership at Lucasfilm has drawn a mixed reception from Star Wars fans.

While Kennedy was initially able to score box office hits like 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens and 2016’s Rogue One, Lucasfilm’s subsequent entries in the sci-fi franchise have been lacking.

In 2018, Star Wars saw a major box office bomb in Solo: A Star Wars Story, per Deadline.

The franchise’s attempt at streaming also produced mixed results, with shows like “The Book of Boba Fett” doing poorly with audiences, according to Rotten Tomatoes.

And it seems Kennedy’s focus on progressive themes and female protagonists in Star Wars projects has been a big problem for Musk.

“Kathleen Kennedy is super bigoted against men,” he wrote in a later X post on Saturday, referring to an interview Kennedy gave to The New York Times last month.

In the interview, Kennedy defended Leslye Headland, the director and writer of the latest Star Wars TV series “The Acolyte,” after fans attacked Headland and called her a “woke.”

“Operating within these giant franchises now, with social media and the level of expectation, it’s terrifying,” Kennedy told The Times.

“I think a lot of the women who get into ‘Star Wars’ struggle with that a little bit more. Because the fan base is so male-dominated, they are sometimes attacked in ways that can be quite personal,” she added.

To be sure, Kathleen’s stewardship of Star Wars isn’t the only reason behind the franchise’s perceived decline among fans.

In 2019, then-Disney CEO Bob Iger said the studio could have released many Star Wars projects after buying Lucasfilm. Iger stepped down as CEO in 2020 before returning to the job in 2022.

“I just think we may have thrown a little too much into the market too quickly,” Iger told The New York Times in a report published in September 2019.

This criticism of Kennedy isn’t the first time Musk has voiced his distaste for what he calls “woke” ideology and the people who support diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts.

“DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it,” Musk said in an X post in January.

Kennedy also wasn’t the first executive to draw Musk’s ire regarding progressive corporate initiatives. Musk clashed with fellow billionaire Mark Cuban after the latter voiced his support for corporate DEI initiatives earlier this year.

“Mark Cuban is desperately trying to signal his ‘virtue,’ but his hypocrisy isn’t convincing anyone,” Musk said in an X post published in January.

Representatives for Musk and Kennedy did not immediately respond to requests for comment from BI sent outside regular business hours.

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