Posted in: Disney+, Movies, TV | Tagged: lucasfilm, star wars

Lucasfilm: Kathleen Kennedy Stepping Down; Filoni, Brennan to Lead

After 14 years, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as the president of Lucasfilm, with Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan set to lead the company.

Rumors that a major change in leadership over at Lucasfilm was coming have been rumbling around for months, but now it looks like it's official. After 14 years guiding the "Star Wars" universe, "Indiana Jones," and other key franchises, Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down as the president of the studio (with her retirement taking effect this week). Stepping in to lead Lucasfilm will be EVP and chief creative officer Dave Filoni, who has been promoted to oversee the company's creative direction as president and chief creative officer. In addition, President & GM of Lucasfilm business Lynwen Brennan will handle the business side of things as co-president. Both Filoni and Brennan will report to Alan Bergman, co-chairman, Disney Entertainment.

Though set to deparrt this week, Kennedy will continue as a producer on the next two feature films: this year's The Mandalorian and Grogu and 2027's Star Wars: Starfighter. In addition, Kennedy will continue as an independent producer on projects outside of Lucasfilm. Along with the two films previously mentioned, Lucasfilm also has two "Star Wars" series on the horizon: Rosario Dawson-starring Ahsoka Season 2 and the animated series Maul: Shadow Lord. If Lucasfilm's plan to split the company's leadership in two looks familiar, it's similar to what's in play over at Marvel Studios and Pixar. In addition, Warner Bros. Discovery also has the same set-up in play with DC Studios.

"It is something I think about all the time," Kennedy shared during an interview from February 2025, when asked about the challenges of leading a franchise as large as Star Wars. "It's fascinating to think about how you sustain a brand, especially Star Wars, which is just about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. And so to analyze and understand what was inspiring George when he created Star Wars, when he was still looking at Saturday matinees and Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon and those are things of the past and politically what he was reflecting in his stories. Because Star Wars has always had a kind of world building, and it reflects a certain amount of our society. The world, needless to say, is changing by the second, and consequently, the audience has changed dramatically. How they consume things. We're seeing this reflected in the health of the movie business, and what it really means for streaming and what are all these other platforms that may be on the horizon. You're trying to look forward. And at the same time, you're trying to create stories that feel familiar. So you're moving into the future, but you're maintaining a sense of familiarity. I think that's the hardest balance."

Kennedy continued, "Then when you have a brand that's this expansive, you're also — and this is something we work very hard at — you try to find different entry points for different generations because that's what Star Wars has always been. It's a very generational brand, and we want to sustain that, and we work hard to sustain that. So George gave us the gift of storytelling being across lots of different genres, and that gives us a lot of opportunity to try things. What we've really enjoyed about the streaming space is we've been able to experiment. It's harder to do that in the movie space. And now I think that that's why it feels so good to be able to move into a Mandalorian movie as we're coming off of three seasons of a very successful show. We've actually built an audience for that, and we gave the young audience an opportunity to enter Star Wars at a different place and not feel like you have to have seen everything. It can become their Star Wars. And that, I think is, is the fun storytelling challenge."

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!