Star Wars Gets New Leader for Franchise’s Next Era
Kathleen Kennedy exits as Disney’s Lucasfilm refocuses on making movies
The Star Wars empire is getting new leadership for only the second time since its launch nearly 50 years ago, as Disney DIS -0.11%decrease; red down pointing triangle opens a new chapter for one of Hollywood’s most celebrated and scrutinized franchises.
Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down after 13 years as president of Lucasfilm, the Disney division that makes Star Wars films and television shows. Veteran Star Wars filmmaker and George Lucas protégé Dave Filoni has been named Lucasfilm’s president and chief creative officer.
Filoni, 51 years old, was hired by Lucas in 2005 to work on the animated series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars.” He directed, produced and wrote numerous Star Wars cartoons and live-action series over the subsequent two decades and was named the Disney unit’s chief creative officer in 2023.
Lynwen Brennan, a 26-year veteran of the company, was named co-president. She oversees Lucasfilm’s business strategy and operations, as well as the Industrial Light & Magic visual-effects studio.
Lucasfilm has had a mixed record commercially and with fans under Kennedy, releasing well-received hits such as “The Force Awakens” and “The Mandalorian,” as well as flops like “Solo: A Star Wars Story” and streaming series “The Acolyte.”
A healthy Star Wars franchise is vital for Disney, which for the past decade has relied on a small number of franchises to fuel its business on big and small screens, in theme parks and on toy-store shelves.
Lucas, who directed the original 1977 “Star Wars” and retained ownership of the brand, hired his friend Kennedy as his successor in 2012. Several months later, Disney, in a big bet by Chief Executive Bob Iger, bought Lucasfilm for $4 billion and kept Kennedy as its leader.
The franchise’s long-awaited return to theaters with J.J. Abrams’ “The Force Awakens” in 2015 was a success and three of the four Star Wars movies released over the next four years grossed more than $1 billion each. But they polarized fans, and some were beset by creative problems behind the scenes.
Kennedy brought in a new filmmaker to complete 2016’s “Rogue One,” fired the directors of “Solo” mid-production, and brought back Abrams for 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker” after originally announcing it would be helmed by Colin Trevorrow of “Jurassic World.”
On Disney+, “The Manadalorian” was a hit, particularly with families, that helped launch the streaming service. “Andor” was a critical sensation that attracted a more sophisticated adult audience, but had a hefty price tag of about $25 million per episode, according to people familiar with the matter.
People who have worked at and with Lucasfilm said Kennedy has been more of a hands-on producer than a business-focused studio executive. “She’s my first call, last call, all the time,” “Andor” creator Tony Gilroy said in an interview with The Wall Street Journal last year.
After starting her career as Steven Spielberg’s secretary, Kennedy became one of Hollywood’s most accomplished producers, with credits including “Back to the Future,” “Jurassic Park” and “The Sixth Sense.”
Running Lucasfilm put her in the crosshairs of one of the world’s most opinionated and outspoken fan communities.
They have blamed her both for content that disappointed and a number of projects that were developed but never made, including a Lando Calrissian effort starring Donald Glover and movies from “Wonder Woman” director Patty Jenkins, Marvel chief Kevin Feige and the writers-producers of “Game of Thrones.”
“The only thing we’re clear about is that Kathleen Kennedy is the one who seeks out these creative types and puts them in charge of projects at Lucasfilm, and sometimes that has gone horribly wrong,” said Meg Jeffery, who runs the YouTube channel Star Wars Meg from her home in London.
Kennedy has expressed frustration with the scrutiny directed at her over Lucasfilm’s development process.
“We want to make those things that, as time passes, feel relevant to what the audience responds to,” she said last year in an interview with Deadline. “Of course we’re going to develop lots of different things with an understanding that not everything gets made.”
Now the franchise’s creative future rests with Filoni, who has long been a public ambassador for Lucasfilm. Often seen wearing a signature cowboy hat, he brings credibility with fans as someone who grew up loving the original movies, had a hand in popular content including “The Mandalorian,” and studied at the feet of Lucas.
“If you want to study and make a Hitchcock film you’d study Hitchcock, so you should study George Lucas if you want to make a Star Wars film,” he said on the Writers Guild of America’s 3rd & Fairfax podcast in 2024.
Filoni has worked closely with Kennedy since becoming chief creative officer, so the leadership transition likely won’t be abrupt, said people familiar with the matter. With his background as a filmmaker and lifelong passion for Star Wars, he brings a different sensibility to leadership than Kennedy, a producer who was a professional peer of Lucas.
Disney hasn’t released a Star Wars movie since 2019’s “The Rise of Skywalker,” the lowest-grossing and worst-reviewed entry in the Kennedy-produced trilogy that started with “The Force Awakens.” In the early 2020s, Lucasfilm focused more on TV shows as its film development stalled and streaming became Disney’s priority.
Lucasfilm’s strategy now is to have movies once again drive the Star Wars franchise, according to a person familiar with the matter. A “Mandalorian” film featuring sidekick Grogu, popularly known as Baby Yoda, comes out in May; and “Starfighter,” a movie starring Ryan Gosling, recently wrapped production and comes out in 2027.
“A Complete Unknown” writer-director James Mangold and “Thor: Ragnarok” director Taika Waititi are working on scripts for new Star Wars films. Longtime X-Men writer-producer Simon Kinberg is writing a new trilogy of Star Wars movies.
The only coming television series the company has announced are a second season of “Ahsoka,” created by Filoni, a new animated show about “The Phantom Menace” villain Darth Maul and an anime-style series called “The Ninth Jedi.”
Kennedy will continue producing Star Wars films and work on independent projects, Disney said. “I will die making movies,” she told Deadline last year.