Kathleen Kennedy is Leaving Lucasfilm, But She’s Not Leaving Hollywood and AI is in Her Future

After years of constant rumors, it’s finally official. Kathleen Kennedy has stepped down as President of Lucasfilm, closing the book on one of the most complicated and talked-about eras in modern franchise filmmaking.

Her exit marks the biggest leadership shift for the studio since Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012 for $4 billion, a deal Kennedy helped engineer alongside George Lucas, who personally chose her to lead the company forward.

Kennedy’s time at Lucasfilm will always be a mixed conversation. On one hand, she shepherded massive successes that reshaped how Star Wars lives on television, including The Mandalorian and the critically celebrated Star Wars: Andor.

On the other, her tenure also included the deeply divisive sequel trilogy, which fractured the fanbase and kept Lucasfilm in a near-constant state of online warfare. Whether viewed as a necessary architect of modern Star Wars or a lightning rod for controversy, she has a huge impact on the franchise.

With Kennedy stepping aside, Lucasfilm is transitioning into a new leadership era under Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan. But while she’s leaving her executive post, Kennedy isn’t riding off into the sunset. She’s staying in the film industry, and she’s openly looking toward a future that includes generative AI.

“I told everybody I would stick around a bit longer than I had intended, but I am so ready to go off and have the chance to make lots of movies,” Kennedy confirmed to Deadline during an extensive exit interview.

“I want to do more movies, and I want the opportunity to get back to a kind of eclectic group of movies the way I used to. I’m looking forward to working with Frank [Marshall] again on some stuff. He has been doing lots of documentaries and having a ball. I’m also really interested in the new technology, I have to say.”

That “new technology” is generative artificial intelligence, a topic that continues to divide Hollywood creatives. Kennedy is fully aware of the concerns and insists her interest comes with guardrails firmly in place.

“I am interested in exploring using those tools in responsible ways, and working out the complications around trying to figure out what we’re going to do in terms of protecting artists’ rights. That is vitally important,” Kennedy explained about her approach to AI in Hollywood.

“But at the same time, there’s nothing more exciting than having new tools that can expand on what you’re capable of doing in terms of creating visual language around stories. I’ve had a unique opportunity to be around a lot of that over the years and witness those changes.

“I genuinely feel like we’re entering that moment again where we’re going to see things we’ve never seen before. I just think that’s really exciting.”

That optimism lands hard against the reality of why so many filmmakers and writers are pushing back. Film and television aren’t just content pipelines for a multibillion-dollar industry. They’re built on lived experience, emotional specificity, and a human point of view.

Strip that away and storytelling risks becoming a cold exercise in output rather than expression. Studios already struggle with formula-driven decision-making, and automating more of the creative process only amplifies that problem.

Generative AI systems operate using Large Language Models that rely on probability rather than imagination. They don’t invent. They remix. These tools analyze massive archives of existing work and calculate the most statistically acceptable result.

Much like Hollywood is doing with all of their projects right now anyway. Everything is a remix, just with humans doing it instead of tech, and accountants and studio execs are the one who calculate the most statistically acceptable result.

Even so, Kennedy believes AI has a place, especially when it comes to scale-driven storytelling. “I’m not saying that it impacts every single story you’re going to tell in cinema,” she said. “But certainly for big tentpole stories where you’re trying to world-build and create images people haven’t seen before, I really believe this technology is going to do that.”

Whether filmmakers embrace or reject that vision, Kennedy’s next chapter guarantees she’ll remain part of the conversation shaping Hollywood’s future. Her time at Lucasfilm may be over, but her influence, and her willingness to push into uncomfortable territory, isn’t going anywhere.