Star Wars editor Marcia Lucas hits out at JJ Abrams and new Disney films: ‘They don’t have a clue’

Marcia Lucas, an editor of the original Star Wars trilogy, has hit out at the Disney-produced Star Wars films.

The American film editor won an Oscar for Best Film Editing for her work on the original Star Wars (1977), along with Paul Hirsch and Richard Chew.

The film – which starred Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher – was written and directed by George Lucas.

Lucas later worked as an editor on the sequels, The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).

In a recent interview given to the writer JW Rinzler for his newly released book about Star Wars producer Howard Kazanjian, Lucas heavily criticised Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy and director JJ Abrams.

The acclaimed editor spoke candidly about her feelings towards the storylines portrayed in the recent Disney-produced Star Wars films.

Lucas was most notably “furious” about the choice to kill off Han Solo.

“I like Kathleen. I always liked her,” said Lucas. “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 JJ Abrams don’t have a clue about Star Wars. They don’t get it.”

Lucas continued: “And JJ 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. 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?’”

The character of Han Solo (played by Harrison Ford) was killed off in the 2015 film The Force Awakens.

“They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore,” said Lucas, who went out to criticise Kennedy and Abrams for “spitting out movies every year”.

The 75-year-old added: “And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is.”

Daisy Ridley took on the protagonist role of Rey in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, which included The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, and The Rise of Skywalker.

“It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Just terrible. Awful. You can quote me… JJ Abrams, Kathy Kennedy – talk to me,” she concluded.

Prior to her work on the original Star Wars trilogy, Lucas edited Martin Scorsese’s acclaimed 1976 film Taxi Driver, starring Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster.

She also received an Oscar nomination for her editing work on the 1973 film American Graffiti, starring Richard Dreyfus and co-written by George Lucas.

Marcia Lucas was married to George Lucas between 1969 and 1983.

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