Collider’s Steven Weintraub Posts Then Quickly Deletes Tweet Claiming “A Lot of the Blame on Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Falls on Kathleen Kennedy and Michelle Rejwan”
Spencer Baculi
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According to a screenshot of a now-deleted tweet, Collider Editor-in-Chief Steven “Frosty” Weintraub recently spoke with sources close to Lucasfilm who claimed that “a lot of the blame” for the lackluster Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker “falls on Kathleen Kennedy and Michelle Rejwan.”
In the screenshot, taken on January 4th and provided by Reddit user /u/egoshoppe on the subreddit /r/saltierthancrait, Weintraub also stated that “it was J.J. who came up with bringing back Palpatine. Which was a huge m…”, with the final word allegedly being “mistake.”
Weintraub did not provide any further details and has not provided any further explanation for the alleged tweet on his personal Twitter account.
If Weintraub’s deleted tweet has any truth to it it seemingly affirms a recent report from Reddit user /u/egoshoppe.
In that post, /u/egoshoppe details that a source told him that Disney actively sabotaged J.J. Abrams and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in order to hamstring Warner Bros. so they cannot reinvigorate their DC Comics franchise.
Abrams recently signed a multi-million dollar deal with Warner Bros.
/u/egoshoppe detailed:
“Disney was one of the studios who were in that Bad Robot bidding war last year. Disney never had much interest in BR as a company but they did in JJ because they saw WB (who JJ went with in the end) as a major threat.”
He would go on to detail the issues that Abrams had with the theatrical cut of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and how Disney interfered with Abrams vision for the film.
Related: Rumor: Disney Sabotaged J.J. Abrams and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
In a follow-up post, /u/egoshoppe directly quoted his source to refute the idea the original post lacked credibility.
“I’m surprised the media is even commenting on it to refute all this because even the way they’re wording things is flat-out laughable and makes them look like they’re trying to cover it up by being ridiculously over-the-top in mentioning buzzwords/sentences like “tin-foil hat” and “conspiracy”. We live in a ‘fake news’ world now and we’re all well aware that the media now has an agenda.”
The source added:
“Investigative, unbiased journalism is a rarity only a few publications can afford. It’d be one thing if they denied something film related but they cannot, literally cannot, have irrefutable evidence about something related to a business mess only a few would be aware of. This isn’t something an average Joe tied to a project can know. This isn’t something JJ would come to you and mention willy-nilly. This isn’t something the actors can freely speak about(though I’m surprised about Dominic a bit). Disney is so much bigger than the glimpses the media gets to see and hear about. Peter Sciretta(whom I actually adore and have ironically met on a number of occasions) – with all due respect – cannot be in the know about things like this no matter how you spin it; no matter how good he thinks his sources are. He simply cannot.”
Related: Star Wars and Lucasfilm Appoint Michelle Rejwan To Oversee Future of Film and TV Franchise
They continued:
“I think we should all be cautious in what we believe in – this goes for what I am saying as well. I have no qualms in admitting that I come from a biased place and that I have an agenda as well. My agenda is to fight a genuinely massive force that is trying to control a narrative in such devious ways. Anyone saying “but JJ is an established powerhouse” – bless you but he’s an ant compared to Disney. Disney – a company that used him merely as a tool and tossed him when they no longer liked the decisions that he made (decisions outside of Disney and decisions that Disney has no business sticking their noses in).”
They concluded:
“I could say much more – I want to share more with the world – but that would mean throwing some people I care about under the bus and getting them in trouble. I cannot do that nor can I put them in a position where they will feel pressured to go against what they believe in by saying something they’re asked to say.
I always knew this was a lose-lose scenario in terms of credibility. That’s not news to me. I’d be naive to think otherwise. Planting the seeds is the only thing I care about for now.”
/u/egoshoppe added his own thoughts on the matter:
“While I have proof of who my source is, I don’t have proof of many of their claims. I have chosen to trust them based on our prior interactions. I hope that they will be able to share more in the future. Thank you for reading, and MTFBWY.”
What do you make of this now-deleted from Collider’s Steven Weintraub? Do you think there is some credence that Disney and maybe by proxy Lucasfilm executives were attempting to sabotage Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker?
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