Kathleen Kennedy's Long Goodbye
On her reported departure and the future of Lucasfilm
Kathleen Kennedy is set to step down as President of Lucasfilm at the end of 2025. It was initially reported at Puck, the website run by Matthew Belloni, former editor of The Hollywood Reporter and an attorney in the entertainment industry. Puck is one of the leaders in Hollywood insider info, so not something to be taken lightly. He writes:
It’s happening: After years of speculation, and polite urging from observers like me, Kathleen Kennedy has informed Disney, as well as friends and associates, that she will exit as Lucasfilm president by the end of the year, per three sources. Disney and Kennedy’s personal publicist declined to comment.
Not a huge shock, of course. Kennedy will be 72 in June, and the legendary movie producer will have run Lucasfilm for 13 years as George Lucas’s handpicked steward under Disney. Kathy was actually planning to leave last year, I’m told, and had even set up an exit interview with a journalist, but she decided to stay for one more year.
Kennedy’s run has been a mixed bag, to varying degrees of critical and financial success, and a troubled relationship with Star Wars fans. It seems as though more projects have been cancelled than produced, a context which I find increasingly compelling given this statement from Belloni:
Ask a top creator about their experience working with Lucasfilm and you’ll likely get an earful: unclear direction, paralyzed decision-making, extreme aversion to creative risks yet also slavish devotion to a fan base that has become increasingly toxic. Not great.
Belloni is not one to mince words or play the PR game, but he’s also not incendiary just for clicks, like so many YouTubers are. If he is saying this it is because people are telling him this. What is unclear is whether he is hearing this simply from disgruntled people for whom it didn’t work out, like Lord and Miller or Colin Trevorrow, who still made three Jurassic Movies with the Kennedy/Marshall Company.
I’ve never been a Kathleen Kennedy hater. She’s been a competent producer alongside her husband Frank Marshall, and a longtime colleague and friend of Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. She’s been an important part of overseeing some of the most successful and important films of our generation.
But Kathleen Kennedy is not a creative producer. She’s not a writer or director, she doesn’t have a lot of input in the editing room, and she’s not hanging out at ILM as they work on effects shots. She’s the one who makes sure things are in the right place at the right time and on budget. She’s benefited from some of the most notable directors in Hollywood, such as Spielberg, Martin Scorcese, Robert Zemeckis and David Fincher. Any successes she has had have been because of the creative vision of the writer and director, and any failures are the same.
The only financial failure under her tenure was the Solo film, which went over budget because Lord & Miller decided to do their own thing and the film required extensive reshoots. It should be noted, though, that the decision to release Solo so soon after The Last Jedi was at the behest of Bob Iger, not Kennedy.
So I’m not surprised to hear that there is unclear direction at Lucasfilm. There was obviously unclear direction when it came to the sequel movies, as the aforementioned Colin Trevorrow was blindsided by Rian Johnson’s choices in The Last Jedi, and the Rise of Skywalker was scrambling against time just to get the movie done. As for paralyzed decision-making, I can understand that. You’re trying to follow the legacy of one of the most iconic film franchises and independent filmmakers in history. I think the aversion to creative risks has come from the fact that certain creative risks have been met with rabid derision, from The Last Jedi, to Lando’s presentation in the Solo movie (that whole “pansexual” thing, in love with a droid, etc), to The Acolyte.
If anything, Kennedy’s penchant for hiring what some might call “rising stars” instead of experienced, competent professionals, has been the biggest problem in her tenure. Where she has hired proven talent in the field, such as Tony Gilroy to helm Andor, Ford and Watts for Skeleton Crew, and Jon Favreau for The Mandalorian, we have gotten some of the best storytelling Star Wars ever gave us. Where she has gone with less-proven talent we got underwhelming ventures such as Obi-Wan, Ahsoka and The Acolyte. Where we have seen hiccups in storytelling, from The Book of Boba Fett, helmed by Robert Rodriguez, and Season 3 of The Mandalorian, Kathleen Kennedy was not responsible for those creative decisions.
Belloni goes on to say:
Kennedy has been telegraphing her exit lately, selling her and husband Frank Marshall’s Malibu house, offloading art, and talking to friends about working with Frank more. She’s also been collecting career honors from everyone from the Austin Film Festival to the American Society of Cinematographers to this week’s Oscar Wilde Awards in L.A. Departing this year will allow a successor to handle the 2026 release of The Mandalorian and Grogu, the first Star Wars movie since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.
Now, there have been a few conflicting reports. In the story at Variety, they report the following:
She intends to retire after her current contract ends, according to a source with knowledge of her plans. A separate source close to Kennedy, however, dismissed the initial report by Puck as “pure speculation” and said nothing has been decided.
Ultimately as head of the Studio the buck stops with her. A case could be made that George Lucas didn’t always make great creative decisions, but they were his decisions, about his story. I don’t think Kathleen Kennedy was a bad choice as President of Lucasfilm, but I think the failure goes all the way to the beginning, in rushing three new movies to market so Bob Iger could recoup his investment, without first bringing in the right person to set the creative vision for Star Wars in Lucas’ absence.
Iger was the one who told George they wouldn’t be using his treatments, not Kennedy. Iger was the one who insisted on bringing in J.J. Abrams fresh off his Star Trek reboot, which went over so well with Star Trek fans, why not try it with Star Wars? Bob Iger’s decisions were all financial--all hype, no substance. Kathleen Kennedy is not like Kevin Feige, who set an ambitious creative vision for Marvel Studios, and oversaw arguably one of the greatest cinematic achievements of all time with the Infinity Saga. It remains to be seen how Marvel follows that up, but so far it hasn’t been great.
I think it is to her credit that Kennedy has allowed the creatives to do their work. Andor has been nothing short of a masterpiece. The Mandalorian single-handedly resurrected the Star Wars property for a time. Skeleton Crew is a heartwarming, whimsical and perfectly-told story that deserves way more publicity than it ever got. It is also to her credit that they haven’t been eager to rush anything else to market. They are being deliberate with Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s New Jedi Order film, The Mandalorian and Grogu quietly completed filming and is in post-production for a 2026 release, Shawn Levy’s project appears to be moving forward with Ryan Gosling attached to star, and Simon Kinberg is slated to be producing a trilogy. Along with Kinberg, they brought in longtime collaborator and industry veteran Derek Hoffman to oversee live-action development after the departure of Rayne Roberts to Searchlight Pictures. The slowdown of the rush of things to market also coincides with Dave Filoni’s promotion to Chief Creative Officer in November of 2023.
Overall, Lucasfilm appears more interested in bringing in proven talent to continue one of the most storied film franchises, rather than “rising stars” for a “test-run” in the Star Wars sandbox. So what does this mean for the future of the franchise? Belloni asks the question:
Who might Disney film chief Alan Bergman choose as Kennedy’s successor? Dave Filoni would be the top internal candidate, I’d surmise, assuming Jon Favreau has little interest. Who else? Let the speculation throughout the Hollywood galaxy begin.
I’m ambivalent when it comes to Dave Filoni. One one hand he’s overseen some of the best storytelling in Star Wars, from The Clone Wars to Rebels to The Bad Batch. Dave Filoni knows how to build a world and tell a story, but sometimes--like Lucas--his whimsy gets the better of him. The episodes of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett that he wrote and directed were some of the better episodes, and the only two episodes of Ahsoka which he actually directed were two of the best in the series. However, Ahsoka flagged and fizzled in its wrap-up, and some of the production quality woes were due to Pandemic restrictions and being stuck in The Volume. The same can be said for the Obi-Wan show.
If I trust anyone to set the creative vision for Star Wars, it’s Dave Filoni. Unfortunately, he would be hamstrung by decisions already made in the production of the Sequels, and it falls to him to make sense out of nonsensical worldbuilding. If he can manage to retcon things like Snoke and the rise of the First Order, and the utter stupidity of The Final Order and Palpatine’s resurrection, that would be an accomplishment of epic proportions which, honestly, if you played through the campaign of Battlefront 2, you know it’s not impossible. It’s actually one of the best new-canon stories we’ve gotten since the sale.
I’m certain that Dave Filoni is not interested in handling the top business and logistics decisions at Lucasfilm, nor would Jon Favreau. As the heir-apparent to George Lucas, Filoni wants to tell stories. But Lucasfilm has the people to take care of the business side of things.
Here’s the problem: Say what you will about Kathleen Kennedy, but she has the clout to sit in a meeting with Bob Iger or Alan Bergman and be respected. Dave Filoni doesn’t. Nobody else inside Lucasfilm does. It will never again be like it was where George Lucas was the final say-so on all decisions of the company, and for the Star Wars saga. Whoever runs Lucasfilm answers to Disney, but no one knows if Disney dictates anything to them or not. I’m reasonably certain that without Kennedy at the head, Disney’s people may feel more inclined to meddle with Lucasfilm’s decisions, simply for lack of trust.
I think Disney execs will have a lot of input on who is selected to head Lucasfilm going forward, and I think it will be someone from outside the company. Hopefully it will be someone who understands George Lucas’ perspective, values Dave Filoni’s input, and helps establish a vision for the saga that stands on quality storytelling over cultural and political considerations.
For all the criticism Kennedy gets from some corners of fandom, we may some day look back on these last 13 years as the good-old days unless we are very, very lucky.