Kathleen Kennedy: No Retirement Plans, But There Are Succession Plans

Posted in: Disney+, Movies, Star Wars, Star Wars, TV | Tagged: kathleen kennedy

Kathleen Kennedy: No Retirement Plans, But There Are Succession Plans

Kathleen Kennedy says she isn't retiring from the industry, but there are succession plans for Lucasfilm leadership. Plus, updates on Star Wars projects.

Published Thu, 27 Feb 2025 21:04:08 -0600
by Kaitlyn Booth
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Article Summary

• Kathleen Kennedy confirms she isn't retiring but succession plans for Lucasfilm are in motion.
• Three or four new Star Wars projects progressing despite scheduling chaos and talent juggling.
• Simon Kinberg's new Star Wars trilogy set to shape the saga's future direction.
• Updates on Shawn Levy, James Mangold, Taika Waititi's Star Wars projects amid busy schedules.

The other night, word came down that Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy was planning on retiring or stepping back, depending on the reporting, from Lucasfilm by the end of the year. Since then, there has been blood in the water, with people trying to speculate who would succeed her before even confirming that Kennedy was planning on stepping back from being the President of Lucasfilm. Deadline got the chance to interview Kennedy, and while there is still plenty of blood in the water and she doesn't exactly confirm or deny what's going on at Lucasfilm, Kennedy does affirm that full retirement from the industry is not in the cards for her.

"The truth is, and I want to just say loud and clear, I am not retiring. I will never retire from movies. I will die making movies. That is the first thing that's important to say. I am not retiring," Kennedy said, which is fair that she wanted to make sure that information was confirmed above all else. There is a very big difference between being the President of Lucasfilm and being a producer, so stepping down or retiring from one doesn't mean retiring from the other. However, Kennedy confirms that things are in motion to find the next generation of Lucasfilm.

"What's happening at Lucasfilm is I have been talking for quite some time with both Bob and Alan about what eventual succession might look like," Kennedy continued." We have an amazing bench of people here, and we have every intention of making an announcement months or a year down the road. We are in lockstep as to what that's going to be, and I am continuing. I'm producing Mandalorian the movie right now, and I'm also producing Sean Levy's movie, which is after that. So I'm continuing to stay at Lucasfilm and looking very thoughtfully with Bob and Alan as to who's stepping in. So that is all underway, and we have every right to make that announcement when we want to make it." When flat-out asked if she would be stepping back as the President of Lucasfilm this year, Kennedy replied, "We really don't know at this stage. There's so much going on, Mike. I don't know." However, she did reiterate that when she leaves, "It's my decision. This is 100 percent my decision."

Some Updates On Star Wars Movies (As A Treat)

We also got some updates on the many different Star Wars projects that are in development from Kennedy. If it sounds like things are a bit chaotic in the background, it sounds like they are, but Kennedy seems to take that schedule chaos as a side effect of working with incredibly talented people. When asked to confirm how many projects she was confident would come into fruition down the line, Kennedy confirmed: "three or four at the moment." She then continued, " And a large part of it, Mike, is who is the talent we're attaching? And that's a challenge in and of itself these days because people get really busy. So you find yourself having to wait with a lot of the top talent doing streaming and movies now. They're juggling schedules. And when you do Star Wars, you pretty much have to step into it and not have any other competing work going on. It's a good two to three years minimum commitment, and that's tough to get top talent to be able to carve out that kind of time. So that's part of the challenge as well."

So, let's get into the projects, shall we? Word came down that Simon Kinberg was working on a new trilogy of films. Kennedy says they are, "absolutely rolling fast and furiously. That has gone exceptionally well, and he's literally going to script as we speak. We'll see something probably around June. Simon, if you remember, he did some work with us years ago with the animated show, which was a really wonderful collaborative experience. And he then got very, very busy with X-Men and then recently became available again, and he segued into this space beautifully. We're really excited about where that's headed." Kinberg's trilogy of films "is the next iteration, the new saga that moves us into the future." Okay, that's definitive, and now we know what to expect from the other filmmakers, which is good. That means the only person with "trilogy pressure" on their shoulders is Kinberg and he knew what he was signing up for.

Next, we have Shawn Levy's project, which went from some nebulous thing that seemed like it was going to happen eventually to being one of the projects Kennedy specifically lists as one she is producing. When asked about it, Kennedy replied, "That's also in the future. It's all post [the first] nine. Shawn's is a standalone Star Wars story that'll take place post 9, maybe five or six years out. And Mandalorian really stands on its own because there, we're dealing with a whole other era in the New Republic. We have other development going on in that space as well. So that's the space that we're pretty much focused on right at the moment because, obviously, with Mandalorian, we have a pretty good sense of where that's going. And with this, it's all pretty much new characters. We may bring some of the characters back from the sequel saga, but pretty much new characters." She says they have been working with Levy for "about a year and a half."

James Mangold is still working on his film, but Kennedy points out how A Complete Unknown and its awards run did cause some scheduling issues, but she's willing to let that happen when it comes to working with people who are here for the right reasons. Kennedy said of Mangold, "he got delayed a bit because of the Dylan movie and the awards season. You have to accommodate top talent to a certain extent. And quality is so important with what it is we're trying to do. I like to wait for people that I think are passionate and really good to step into Star Wars."

As for Taika Waititi, he sounds a bit more elusive, but she does confirm that he's working with another writer, so perhaps he has realized that he can't direct and write the project completely. "He's so busy. I love him, I think if we ever do get a script from Taika, it's going to be fantastic. I already saw a first act that I loved, but tying him down it's tricky," Kennedy said of Waititi and his busy schedule but does confirm that he he has "exactly the tone we're always looking for with filmmakers who can pull that off. It's not like they're a dime a dozen. You're really trying to find the diamond in the rough, and he's one of them."

Kennedy seems committed to the world of Star Wars for quite a while, even if she won't be President of Lucasfilm for the rest of her life. That isn't that surprising considering her close working relationship with George Lucas and her experience in the industry. It would be idiotic not to keep her around as a producer on the franchise after she takes a step back. The sexism and vitriol that Kennedy has had thrown at her for the last decade is practically a thesis on the passion of fandom gone wrong. The worst segment of Star Wars fanboys have been foaming at the mouth for days, thinking they had somehow won, that they had the power to push this woman out, but they have no power here, and they never did. "Me. It's my decision. This is 100 percent my decision," Kennedy replied when asked whose decision it will be when the leadership change at Lucasfilm happens, and we believe her.

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