Owen Gleiberman: “Star Wars" is a religion that has begun to lose its faith.

From Variety — Owen Gleiberman‘s “Why the Tanking of Solo is a Force of Darkness for Star Wars,”:

"The failure of “Solo” blows a hole in all that. It brings the relationship between “Star Wars” movies and their fans crashing down to earth. It’s the first “Star Wars” film whose box-office performance says: This is just another movie. Another installment in another cinematic universe that provides another hour of diversion for another substratum of entertainment consumers who don’t finally care that much whether all of this really means anything. It’s possible, and even probable, that some “Star Wars” fans have been feeling those whispers of underlying apathy for a while. Butthe box-office performance of “Solo” makes it official that “Star Wars” is a religion that has begun to lose its faith. The faithful may still show up for a while, but that only indicates why they may ultimately fade away: The business of worship should never become a habit."

Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy has been described by an insider as person that “too frequently second-guessed her own choices and hasn’t effectively resolved disagreements with directors.” 

Of course we know of Kennedy's problems with filmmakers, most notably her firings of Phil Lord and Chris Miller on "Solo," the axing of Collin Trevorrow from "Episode IX" and,  letting Gareth Edwards go of his duties on "Rogue One," with Tony Gilroy coming in near that production's end to takeover. [Although Edwards did get final director's credit].  

Lest we forget, that if there is a director Kathleen Kennedy has warmed up to during her tenure as Lucasfilm head, it would have to be Rian Johnson. Yes, the same Johnson who is all but HATED by a fairly large group of "Star Wars" devotees and, yet, was given the task of creating a new "Star Wars" trilogy from scratch for the next decade. So Owen is right, the religion is, in fact, maybe over, and Kathleen Kennedy is to blame. Maybe we should all celebrate the journey to come with "Episode IX," which will surely be a film that JJ Abrams will be making to please the legions of old-school fans that have devoted, for some, their entire lives to this "religion" only to have seen it turbulently shattered the last two years. "Episode IX" will be a back-to-the-basics affair, there's no doubt about it, but will it already be too late? Have Kennedy and Disney already steered the ship a little too far-off to fully recover and be redeemed by Lucas loyalists?