Earlier this week it was reported by Puck that Kathleen Kennedy was planning on retiring from her position as Lucasfilm president after thirteen years in post. Since then The Hollywood Reporter and Variety have covered the Puck report and offered up their own articles regarding possible candidates that would succeed Kennedy as Lucasfilm president. There had been no word from Lucasfilm or Kathleen Kennedy on the matter, and nor did I expect there to be, but surprisingly, Deadline have managed to speak with Kennedy about the reports from earlier this week.
Kennedy told the Deadline outright that she is not retiring and that she will continue making movies for the rest of her life, “I will die making movies.” I don’t think anybody who’s followed Kennedy’s career would expect her to retire from filmmaking, she’s one of the greatest producers of all time, but the rumours this week wasn’t that she’d retire from the industry, but that she was planning to retire her position as the Lucasfilm President.
The internet being the internet saw the Deadline headline, didn’t read the article and Kennedy’s quotes, and ran with it, mocking or attacking people that covered the news of Kennedy’s possible departure as president or Lucasfilm from earlier in the week. However, when you actually take the time to read what Kennedy said, she has not denied a Lucasfilm exit, in-fact, it actually appears that she’s done quite the opposite. Kennedy said to following:
“What’s happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with Bob [Iger] and Alan [Horn] about what an eventual succession might look like. We have an amazing bench of people here [at Lucasfilm] and we have every intention of making an announcement months or a year down the road.”
Does that sound like a denial that she’s stepping down as Lucasfilm president? No, it doesn’t. It sounds as if Kennedy and Disney have been succession planning and that an announcement of who will succeed Kathleen Kennedy will come within a year. And that’s what the rumours this week have been, that Kennedy would step down from her position as Lucasfilm president this year, not that she was retiring from being a filmmaker, but her position at Lucasfilm.
Kennedy’s quote also seems to imply that whoever might eventually take the position of Lucasfilm president might come from within the company and wouldn’t be an outside hire. Many reports this week have seemed to point the finger in the direction of Lucasfilm’s chief creative officer Dave Filoni as the most likely candidate to succeed Kennedy, some have even speculated that it could be a joint effort akin to the set up at DC Studios where there’s two presidents, James Gunn and Peter Safran, where one handles the more creative side and the other more managerial. I personally believe that it will be a DC Studios situation and that Filoni will be made president alongside Carrie Beck. Deadline asked Kennedy on the possibly of Dave Filoni succeeding her at the top of Lucasfilm, but Kennedy wouldn’t reveal anything:
“I can’t say who it is because there’s just an internal process that goes on inside a large corporation and a publicly held company, as to how we go about making deals, finalizing decisions and making announcements. There’s nothing unusual about that, and we’re in that process.”
Kennedy during her interview with Deadline denied that there’s any chaos ongoing at Lucasfilm due to the eventuality of her stepping down. Kennedy reaffirmed the succession planning has been going on for years, that things are still operating well at the studio and that she plans to stick around to help the successor become successful, reaffirming that she’s producing The Mandalorian and Grogu along with the untitled Shawn Levy movie, which Kennedy also confirmed is the next Star Wars movie after The Mandalorian and Grogu, so we’ll likely see that title in December of 2027.
Kathleen Kennedy was also sure to dismiss rumours that rear their head every year that she’s being fired from Lucasfilm by Disney and that those rumours “couldn’t be further from the truth” and that she and Disney have been in constant communication about her stepping down and collaborating on the process of finding her successor and that Disney has been ‘empowering’ Kennedy to make the right decision on who replaces her.
So there you have it folks, straight from the woman herself, Kathleen Kennedy. She’s not planning on retiring from making movies, she’s been succession planning at Lucasfilm for years and that announcement could arrive in the coming months or within the next year. Kennedy is stepping down sooner than later, but she’s still going to be around at Lucasfilm for while to help usher in the new era under the new president and will still be a producer on some future Star Wars movies.
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