In a move anticipated to happen since first being reported last year, Kathleen Kennedy is set to announce the end to her nearly 14-year tenure as Lucasfilm’s president and hand the reins of the company over to Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. She will make the announcement via an exit interview that’s already been set up. Kennedy will remain an active producer for ongoing Star Wars projects and upcoming ones that she greenlit before her planned exit from the company’s executive suite.
Mathew Belloni of Puck News reported on Lucasfilm’s coming leadership change as part of his report for 20 predictions of future Hollywood stories, but flagged this as a “news item” and not a piece of speculation. Here’s what it says behind the paywall:
“Filoni and Brennan Become Jedi Masters at Lucasfilm – In the next week or two, Disney will finally confirm what we’ve all known for months: Kathleen Kennedy is indeed stepping down as Lucasfilm president, and Dave Filoni, currently the chief creative officer of the Star Wars unit, will be elevated into the top job. (Simon Halls, Kennedy’s personal publicist, has already set up her cushy exit interview… I’m sure the Pulitzer committee is standing by for that piece of journalism.) Filoni has never really been a traditional executive, so they’re giving him a partner in Lynwen Brennan, currently president and general manager of Lucasfilm Business, but he’ll be the decider on the creative direction of the franchise in film, television, and any other platforms in the galaxy.”
In June 2012, one month after leaving her production company Kennedy/Marshall, Kathleen Kennedy was hired by George Lucas as co-chair of Lucasfilm ahead of the announcement that the company would become a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company and produce new Star Wars movies and shows, formally becoming president of the company after Lucas completed the sale and retired from filmmaking. Under her watch, the company has released six major motion pictures and seventeen major live-action and animated television series for Disney XD and Disney Plus.
Kennedy is also not finished with Star Wars, as she will continue to make films and shows in the galaxy far, far away as a producer instead of an executive. She is handing the reins over to George Lucas protégé Dave Filoni, who she previously made a chief creative officer and placed in a program to prepare him for live-action directing, as the company’s creative lead, whereas corporate and financial decisions will be left to Brennan (similarly to how Warner Bros. restructured DC Studios to have James Gunn, and Peter Safran handling the creative and business-oriented elements of the job, respectively). Filoni and Brennan were recently spotted together at an event late last year honoring his involvement at Lucasfilm for over two decades.
The move has also not been officially announced, but could happen as soon as over the next two weeks.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
