A Shift In The Force For Lucasfilm’s Kathleen Kennedy: The Exit Interview

EXCLUSIVE : On a rainy London day in December, not two hours after wrapping Star Wars: Starfighter with director Shawn Levy and a cast headed by Ryan Gosling, ‘Jurassic Park’Universal/courtesy Everett Collection Kathleen Kennedy was ready to discuss the long-in-the-works transition of Lucasfilm . She’s handing the reins to her longtime lieutenants. The Disney division will be run by Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni and on the business side Lynwen Brennan , a sharp Welsh executive who has been Lucasfilm Executive Vice President and General Manager after 16 years at ILM. Kennedy has been getting them ready for a couple of years, as she plotted a return to her first love, producing. She will be making a lot of, well, Star Wars films, far in the future as well as teaming on some projects with Frank Marshall. They’ve been married nearly 40 years and fell in love as they presided over Steven Spielberg’s Amblin in its heyday. Watch on Deadline Before taking up George Lucas on his offer to run Lucasfilm in 2012 before Disney acquired the company for just over $4 billion in cash and stock, Kennedy already had a hand in what seems like just about every significant blockbuster that has been part of our lives. Her first producing credits came on Poltergeist and E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial , followed by such films as Schindler’s List , The Sixth Sense , Munich , War of the Worlds, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly , Lincoln and franchises including Jurassic Park , Indiana Jone s and Back to the Future . Including the Star Wars films she produced, that’s more than $11 billion in global grosses. Since she took the top Lucasfilm post almost 14 years ago, and in that span the company generated five features that continued the saga Lucas began in 1977 or branched into other directions. Those films had global box office of $5.9 billion. The first, Star Wars: The Force Awakens , became the highest grossing film ever in North America, with $936 million stateside, as it became one of only seven films films to cross $2 billion globally. The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker , which completed the Skywalker trilogy, grossing $1.3 billion and $1 billion respectively. Rogue One also eclipsed $1 billion, and spawned the Emmy-winning series Andor. Given the high expectations of a rabid fan base, every development project and creative attachment has gotten high levels of scrutiny, ratcheting up the stress level. But the accomplishments are undeniable. Following a Disney mandate to broaden into television and build Disney+, Lucasfilm series including The Mandalorian , Andor and others have garnered more than 90 Emmy nominations so far. The expansion also included five animated series, the Disneyland and Disney World attractions Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, and the evolution of Lucasfilm Games. Kennedy has been discussing this succession plan for two years with Disney’s Bob Iger and Alan Bergman, and now the succession will finally happen the early part of 2026. Here, she...

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