Lucasfilm Head Kathleen Kennedy To Step Down At End Of Year
There’s going to be a future leader of the 'Star Wars' franchise in the future, leaving the company after 13 years.
The worst people you used to know are celebrating today. Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, one of the biggest targets of toxic anti-woke Star Wars discourse grifting, is planning to retire by the end of the year. Her nor the company’s representatives were available for immediate comment.
Kennedy’s career as a producer goes back decades working with Steven Spielberg and husband Frank Marshall, through their company Kennedy/Marshall, on titles that include every Indiana Jones film, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Gremlins films, The Color Purple, The Goonies, Empire of the Sun, An American Tail, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Lincoln, and the Back to the Future and Jurassic Park trilogies. There’s even Balto, Hook, and The Flintstones. Even a couple of Ghibli dubs, namely Ponyo and The Secret World of Arrietty. I could go on, but she has produced or executive produced more than 60 non-Star Wars films and been nominated for eight Oscars.
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It is because she had been working from her own company for so long that she joined Lucasfilm as co-chair in May 2012, the final five months before the Disney purchase that transitioned George Lucas into his own (semi-)retirement. This meant she has led everything since The Force Awakens. That’s the five films, plus the last Indiana Jones film Dial of Destiny. The five Star Wars films have only slight overlap with the seven live-action television series made for Disney+ which began in 2019 with The Mandalorian and last completed the first season of Skeleton Crew last month. Next up is the second season of Andor in April. The Willow franchise was revived after nearly 35 years for a Disney+ series that was ultimately part of a mass original series removal just 6 months after premiering. She has been the decider on firing Phil Lord and Chris Miller as directors of Solo: A Star Wars Story in the middle of production, sidelining Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards for Tony Gilroy to oversee reshoots, and seen stalls on such announced projects like Rian Johnson’s trilogy, and another from Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Benioff and David Weiss. Unless any Celebration announcements reveal the life in the movie slate, Kennedy’s last Star Wars film as producer will be May 2026’s The Mandalorian & Grogu.
Insiders are saying that replacing someone with such experience won’t be easy. Those within the industry believe that homegrown candidates, have not been properly groomed. “One reason Kathy stuck around for so long is because there is no credible alternative,” said one person who has frequently talked with Lucasfilm leadership. Somme believe there was someone, Rayne Roberts who had been with the company for 12 years that would have been the one, but he’s just been announced as Searchlight’s new senior vice president of production.
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