UPDATE: The most anticlimactic announcement in recent film history arrived this late afternoon — Kathleen Kennedy has officially stepped down from Lucafilm. Her departure from the company, which is effective this week, was long expected.
Following her departure, Dave Filoni has been elevated to president and chief creative officer of Lucasfilm, placing him in charge of the studio’s overall creative vision. Oversight of Lucasfilm’s business operations will fall to Lynwen Brennan, who will serve alongside Filoni as co-president.
EARLIER (01.06.26): According to Puck’s Matt Belloni, over the next week or two, Disney will make official what’s been an open secret for quite some time now: Kathleen Kennedy is leaving her position as president of Lucasfilm, with Dave Filoni set to take over the throne.
Filoni, the current CCO of the Star Wars operation, has long been positioned as her heir apparent, and because he hasn’t exactly ever fit the mold of a studio exec, Lucasfilm will pair him with Lynwen Brennan, the company’s president and GM on the business side. Still, make no mistake: Filoni will be the head honcho of the franchise’s creative future, overseeing Star Wars across film and television.
Filoni’s résumé? After directing episodes of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” in the aughts he was tasked by George Lucas to oversee the television series — and then film version — “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” More pertinently, he is the creator, executive producer, and writer of the live-action Disney+ series “Ahsoka,” and served as executive producer on “The Mandalorian,” “The Book of Boba Fett,” and “Skeleton Crew.”
There hasn’t been a ‘Star Wars’ movie released since 2019’s ‘The Rise of Skywalker.’ That will change this year when Jon Favreau’s ‘The Mandalorian & Grogu’ hits theaters in May. Nobody’s really sure if this film will prove to be a success, but a hit movie is what Lucasfilm needs right now.
Over the past seven years, Lucasfilm has become a revolving door of Star Wars announcements — many of which never made it past the press release stage. Projects came and went, often quietly shelved, painting a picture of a studio in disarray. Kennedy seemed to have lost the plot. The one bright spot? She managed to turn “Andor” into a critical and commercial success on Disney+, but beyond that, it’s been a rough stretch, with only that series standing out as a legitimate creative win in an otherwise shaky tenure.
Yes, J.J. Abrams’ “The Force Awakens” hit $2 billion at the box office in 2015, but then came its sequel, “The Last Jedi,” which earned $1.3 billion, much of it due to fans tuning out because of the liberties its filmmaker, Rian Johnson, took with the lore built up by George Lucas. The trilogy capper, “The Rise of Skywalker,” did even less, earning $1 billion, which was 50% less than “The Force Awakens.” Trilogies are supposed to pick up steam with each ensuing installment, but this one deflated in real time.
If anything, the best Star Wars movie released during Kennedy’s tenure — an opinion that seems to be the consensus among the fanbase — was Gareth Edwards’ ‘Rogue One,’ which, ironically, was born out of a troubled production. Tony Gilroy was brought in for heavy reshoots after Edwards’ initial cut reportedly didn’t meet Disney’s tonal expectations. And yet, the film defied the odds: dark, morally gray, grounded, and capped by one of the best endings in the franchise — a climax that actually meant something.
Kennedy now leaves seven ‘Star Wars’ movies in development (hell?), from directors Filoni, Simon Kinberg, James Mangold, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Donald Glover, Taika Waititi, and Patty Jenkins.
That $100M budget is a steep investment for a movie without conventional A-list headliners — unless Lily James and Pierce Brosnan fit that description for you.