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

Lucasfilm: Kennedy "Wouldn't Change Anything"; Shares Highs & Lows

Outgoing Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy discussed the highs (Star Wars fans) and lows (toxic fans) of running the Star Wars franchise.

Earlier today, the news hit that Kathleen Kennedy was stepping down as the president of Lucasfilm this week, with EVP and chief creative officer Dave Filoni and President & GM of Lucasfilm business Lynwen Brennan taking over as co-presidents. Kennedy will continue as a producer on the following 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. Speaking with Deadline Hollywood for an interview that went live shortly after news of her departure was announced, Kennedy covered a number of aspects of her time at Lucasfilm. For this go-around, we're taking a look at what Kennedy had to share about the highs and lows that came with managing a franchise as large and beloved as "Star Wars."

"The highs include realizing how many people love Star Wars. The majority of people, and certainly the people that I run into, and people outside the business, they love Star Wars. They love the movies, they might love all the shows, they might love some of the shows. But when I came into this, I realized a few things. We had walked in at a moment when there hadn't been any movies for 10 years or more, but there was still the memory of the greatest series of movies in cinema history. So you're walking into something that has enormous expectations," Kennedy shared. "Yet at the same time, you know that you've got to find new characters and you have to expand the galaxy, and you need to think about who the new audience is. That's what I feel that I did, and that's what I feel all the people that I've worked with over this last decade did. The highs include bringing in a new audience. I think we did find new characters. We continue to find new characters."

Regarding the lows, Kennedy shared what it was like dealing with certain fans who had a very narrow view of what the "Star Wars" universe should be. "The lows are that you've got a very, very small percentage of the fan base that has enormous expectations and basically they want to continue to see pretty much the same thing. And if you're not going to do that, then you know going in that you're going to disappoint them. I'm not sure there's anything you can do about that, because you can't please everybody. All you can do is try to tell good stories and try to stick to the essence of what George created," Kennedy explained.

She continued, "He embedded incredible values into Star Wars and what it has to say. The whole idea of hope and fun and entertainment in what he's done over all these years, that's what I tried to preserve. And I wouldn't do that any differently and I wouldn't change anything that we've done over the years. I understand why some people may like certain things more than others, but that's not going to change why I decided to do certain things and why I decided to work with the people that we worked with."

One thing Kennedy made clear was that those brought into the "Star Wars" universe were individuals who wanted to do right by it. "I think everybody that came into the Star Wars space, they love Star Wars, and that was first and foremost important. You want to have people coming into Star Wars, and wanting to tell stories and wanting to make movies and wanting to create television shows that you respect and care about," she said. "Jon Favreau is completely different than Tony Gilroy, and yet they're both incredibly talented storytellers. I found it thrilling to support each one of them in trying to tell the stories they wanted to tell."

Kennedy sees her time at Lucasfilm as the way she wants to approach her production work moving forward. "That's what I think I do well, and that's what I like to do and want to continue to do. And hopefully that took Star Wars into the next step. We'll see in the long run, but it feels like it did. I feel like we expanded the universe, we brought new audiences in. And I think that's the most difficult thing to do with franchises in general. But especially with something like Star Wars, where George just created something that became a part of everybody's childhood. Every single filmmaker that walks in and wants to work on Star Wars, the first thing they say to me, the first thing I hear is, 'Let me tell you about when I went to see Star Wars for the first time with my dad.'"

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