To Bob Iger,

Chairperson of Disney Board of Directors

“Without respect, we reject.”

It’s just four words, yet in three years Disney leadership hasn’t managed to receive that memo. So I’m going to share a personal Disney Star Wars story with you:

My mother was the biggest Star Wars fan I’ve ever met.

She didn’t own action figures the way some fans do, but the pride she felt when she could share stories she first saw as a girl with her grandfather with her own children was something beautiful. She showed us the original trilogy. The releases. The prequels. She bought us the toys we wanted, even played adventures with us.

The Force Awakens premiered and my mother was so excited! Another Star Wars story to share with her family – another chance to see familiar heroes in space! It was all she’d talk about for weeks.

Then… tragically… The Last Jedi premiered. I wasn’t going to see it – already disappointed by Disney Star Wars and the outspoken misandry and antagonism of Kathleen Kennedy. But my mother pleaded with me, so I took her to see it. In IMAX.

I’ll never forget the pain on her face when she apologized for asking me to go.

No one in my family even watched The Rise of Skywalker.

My mother is slipping into senility now and The Last Jedi will be the last movie I saw with her in theaters. Disney sabotaged that experience, that multi-generational 40-year arc for my family, to appease the bigotry and bullying of Kathleen Kennedy.

I could write about how it’s reckless to allow a senior executive to cause billions in financial losses and start boycotts against the company during a financial downturn – but you know that. You’ve known that for years, as you watched Kathleen Kennedy butcher movies, destroy toy lines, ruin a theme park, and wreck a multi-billion dollar multi-generation IP through her malice. Multiple billions to appease the bigotry and malice of an executive.

Instead, I’ll leave you with words that perhaps you’ll hear for the first time:

“Without respect, we reject.”

At Your Service,

Z. Michael Gehlke