After fourteen years, Kathleen Kennedy, one of Hollywood’s most influential producers, who guided Star Wars through all the successes and failures of the Disney era, has resigned from the position of president of Lucasfilm. The decision did not come as a surprise to the industry, but it still marks an era in the life of one of the biggest film brands.
Few film producers can say that they have worked on more than sixty films that have grossed more than $11 billion worldwide, and that they have five works to their name that are among the fifty highest-grossing films of all time. Kathleen Kennedy belongs to this narrow circle: she went from being one of Steven Spielberg’s most important co-creators to becoming one of Hollywood’s most powerful producers, and then, after Disney’s acquisition, the president of Lucasfilm.
This life path is very beautiful on paper, even amazing, except that Kennedy is a leader with dubious judgment, to put it mildly, in the eyes of Star Wars fans and a part of the profession. Some go so far as to say
he managed to almost drive the world’s most valuable pop culture brand into the ground.
From small to large
As a film student, Kennedy got a job at San Diego’s KCST television station, where he worked as a cameraman, editor, and finally newsroom coordinator. From there, he made his way to Los Angeles, where he became an assistant to film director John Milius (Apocalypse Now, Conan the Barbarian). This is how he met Steven Spielberg, who quickly noticed him, first as a secretary, and then as an increasingly serious co-creator. He was already a collaborator on the cast list of Looters of the Lost Ark, and in 1982 he became a co-producer on the film Poltergeist.
However, the real breakthrough came with ET, the extraterrestrial, on which he already worked as a producer with Spielberg – in the same year, incidentally, he co-founded Amblin Entertainment with Frank Marshall, Kennedy’s later husband. In the 1980s and 90s, Kennedy’s name practically became synonymous with American blockbusters. He was involved in the production of the Indiana Jones films, and as head of Amblin, he played a key role in the creation of the Back to the Future trilogy.
He worked as a producer on Jurassic Park and The Lost World, was the lead producer on Schindler’s List, and later collaborated with directors such as Martin Scorsese, Robert Zemeckis, Barry Levinson and Clint Eastwood. His collaboration with Spielberg continued later on: as a producer, he participated in the production of War of the Worlds, Munich and Lincoln, among others. Lincoln was a particularly great professional success, receiving seven Golden Globe and twelve Oscar nominations.
After such references, it was a completely logical step for Disney to entrust the entire shop to him after the acquisition of Lucasfilm in 2012. This was preceded by Kennedy becoming co-chairman of Lucasfilm alongside George Lucas in the summer of 2012, the acquisition was announced at the end of October.
As leader, Kennedy quickly set about relaunching the Star Wars franchise. As a first big step, he won JJ Abrams to the director’s chair, and in 2015, The Force Awakens was presented, which generated more than 2 billion dollars worldwide and brought in the highest income of all time in American cinemas.
The critical reception of The Force Awakens was mixed, its financial success lay more in the fact that those who grew up on the original trilogy and the prequel trilogy could buy tickets for the new Star Wars movie at the same time, in Hungarian these outstanding numbers spoke of the return of the franchise.
Producers JJ Abrams and Kathleen Kennedy on the set of The Force Awakens in 2014 – Photo: Lucasfilms / Walt Disney / © LucasFilms / Walt Disney
After that, new films arrived every year: Rogue One – A Star Wars Story, The Last Jedi, The Age of Skywalker and Solo: A Star Wars Story, which became historically significant because it became the first Star Wars film to open at a loss in theaters. Disney also tried to turn Star Wars into a brand similar to Marvel, releasing new movies and series every year, but according to the signs, this backfired, and someone had to take the trouble. “Solo was a little disappointing for us,” CEO Bob Iger said back in 2023. “Because of this, we had to think about whether we were going too fast, and then we decided to slow down a bit.”
Behind the scenes, the path that Kennedy led Lucasfilm through was not always smooth: he changed directors several times during filming, he took over Solo from Phil Lord and Chris Miller, Gareth Edwards took a backseat to Rogue One, and Tony Gilroy reworked the film. Let’s say that the latter decision eventually worked, Zsivány Egyes was relatively successful, and Gilroy later put one of the most acclaimed Star Wars productions on the table with the series Andor.
In retrospect, it seems that the failure of the new trilogy and the haste associated with cinema appearances were practically sewn around Kennedy’s neck. In addition, it is worth mentioning that according to some Star Wars fans, the universe started “in the direction of the woke” with Disney’s role and under his control.
The hysteria about the wokeness swelled to such an extent that there were actors who were harassed because, according to the fans, they “didn’t fit” into the Star Wars universe. In 2022, Moses Ingram, who played Reva Sevander (the Third Sister) in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, was subjected to severe racist harassment and online abuse after the character was introduced.
The incident caused widespread outrage within the Star Wars franchise, and Obi-Wan actor Ewan McGregor also spoke out on the matter, publicly standing up for him and declaring that those who send hateful messages are not true fans. The case of Gina Carano, who appeared in the first season of The Mandalorian, can also be loosely connected with this, but she was fired for posts that were transphobic and relativized the Holocaust.
It was certainly attributed to Kennedy that several announced projects were ultimately not realized, while the cinematic Star Wars was put on the back burner for years. Meanwhile, Kennedy’s biggest move came on the streaming front: with Jon Favreau, he launched the first live-action Star Wars series, the aforementioned The Mandalorian. The series became Disney+’s flagship and reinvigorated the franchise, but later series received a more mixed reception.
After Kennedy’s departure, he will in principle still participate as a producer in the works of The Mandalorian and Grogu, which will be released in May, and the Star Wars: Starfighter movie planned for 2027, and then he can continue his career as an independent producer.
At Lucasfilm, meanwhile, a new management model is coming into effect. Creative direction will go to Dave Filoni, who will become president and chief creative officer, while business affairs will be handled by Lynwen Brennan as co-president. The split structure is not alien to Disney, Pixar and Walt Disney Animation also operate in a similar way. Filoni and Brennan will report to Alan Bergman, co-chairman of Disney Entertainment. Filoni came from the world of animation as a student of George Lucas and played a key role in the success of The Clone Wars, then The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.
Brennan has been with Lucasfilm since 1999, previously leading Industrial Light & Magic. Both know the company from the inside, so according to many, continuity is expected rather than a radical change. Others, on the other hand, expect development to pick up after Kennedy’s departure: in the past year, the studio practically played a wait-and-see game while the succession was arranged.
Kathleen Kennedy’s farewell marks the end of one of the great eras of the franchise, but her legacy is quite controversial: the most successful Star Wars films of all time and the productions that divided the fanbase to the extreme are both linked to her name. However, there is little dispute that he orchestrated a change of ownership and reshaped the brand in the era of streaming in addition to the cinema screen.
