Star Wars chief to retire: Kathleen Kennedy reportedly leaving Lucasfilm this year

For over 12 years, after George Lucas sold Lucasfilm to Disney, Kathleen Kennedy has served as president of the film and television production company that gave us franchises like Star Wars and Indiana Jones. But the recent reports suggest that Kennedy is done at the company and might step down from the position.

She began working with Steven Spielberg, of whom she caught the eye with her talent of interrupting someone as she fired her creative ideas. It's been three decades and she's among his longest-serving collaborators to date. She later went on to co-found Amblin Entertainment alongside him and Frank Marshall.

Other than Spielberg, she is a longtime friend and collaborator of Lucas too. Before he sold his company, she was serving as a co-chair there and was eventually promoted to the position she's likely leaving behind.

---

Kathleen Kennedy has navigated just fine in these turbulent years at Lucasfilm

American publication Puck released a report on Monday (via The Hollywood Reporter) that Kathleen Kennedy is planning to step down as the company's president this year. We still need an official word on this, which we might get during the Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo.

Throughout her career, Kathleen gave us five films that went on to become among the highest-grossing films of all time: Jurassic Park (1999), Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015), Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016), Star Wars: The Last Jedi (2017), and Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019).

Commercially, she came as a boon to the company, but there were criticisms in the narratives of her films. Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), where Alden Ehrenreich played Han Solo, proved financially disastrous. There were issues, following which the company lost ties with Chris Lord and Phil Miller, who were initially directing the movie.

Now that these reports are in light, people are talking about her successor in the company. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau could be in the line if something like this happens officially. But this is not easy, and one fine debate on the subreddit r/StarWars had a meaty discussion about that three years ago.

This fan had posted,

"People who want Filoni and Favreau to replace Kathleen Kennedy as President of Lucasfilm do not understand the film industry or her job."

Alongside the news concerning Kathleen Kennedy, we got the first trailer for Andor season 2, and that's already looking good, with it garnering 3.4 million views on YouTube at the time of writing.

---

Also Read: Why did George Lucas start Star Wars with Episode 4? Details explained in depth