Ex-Lucasfilm Head Kennedy Shares Proudest Star Wars Accomplishments
· BCPosted in: Disney+, Movies, TV | Tagged: lucasfilm, star wars
Ex-Lucasfilm Head Kennedy Shares Proudest "Star Wars" Accomplishments
Ex-Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy discusses dealing with Star Wars fans' expectations and names her proudest franchise accomplishments.
Published Thu, 01 Oct 2026 08:37:09 -0500
by Ray Flook
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Article Summary
- Kathleen Kennedy reflects on 14 years leading Lucasfilm and the challenge of shaping the future of Star Wars.
- The former Lucasfilm chief says balancing longtime Star Wars fan expectations with bold new ideas is the toughest job.
- Kennedy argues fans should be heard without turning every creative choice in Star Wars into a referendum.
- Her proudest Star Wars achievements include The Force Awakens, The Mandalorian, and Andor under Lucasfilm.
After 14 years guiding the "Star Wars" universe, "Indiana Jones," and other key franchises, Kathleen Kennedy announced back in January that she was stepping down as the head of Lucasfilm. Ten months later, and with Dave Filoni now overseeing the company's creative direction as president and chief creative officer, Kennedy offered some insights into her run as studio head during an interview at Bloomberg's Screentime event in Los Angeles. One issue that franchises such as "Star Wars," "Star Trek," "Doctor Who," and others increasingly face is striking a balance between serving long-running fans and giving creators a chance to craft new visions that attract new audiences.
"Well, I think that that's the challenge that all franchises [face], certainly something that's been around now for 50 years. You've got people where this means a lot to them," Kennedy explained. "But at the same time, the challenge is to try to create something new, something original. So finding that balance is really the toughest thing." Regarding the claims by some that she gave certain sections of the "Star Wars" fandom a little too much say, Kennedy noted that you need to let fans have their say "without making that be a referendum," while also supporting new, creative visions. As for her proudest accomplishments during her time running the franchise, Kennedy has 2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Disney+ series The Mandalorian and Andor at the top of her list.
"It is something I think about all the time," Kennedy shared during an interview from February 2025, when asked about the challenges of leading a franchise as large as Star Wars. "It's fascinating to think about how you sustain a brand, especially Star Wars, which is just about to celebrate its 50th anniversary. And so to analyze and understand what was inspiring George when he created Star Wars, when he was still looking at Saturday matinees and Buck Rogers and Flash Gordon and those are things of the past and politically what he was reflecting in his stories. Because Star Wars has always had a kind of world building, and it reflects a certain amount of our society. The world, needless to say, is changing by the second, and consequently, the audience has changed dramatically. How they consume things. We're seeing this reflected in the health of the movie business, and what it really means for streaming and what are all these other platforms that may be on the horizon. You're trying to look forward. And at the same time, you're trying to create stories that feel familiar. So you're moving into the future, but you're maintaining a sense of familiarity. I think that's the hardest balance."
Kennedy continued, "Then when you have a brand that's this expansive, you're also — and this is something we work very hard at — you try to find different entry points for different generations because that's what Star Wars has always been. It's a very generational brand, and we want to sustain that, and we work hard to sustain that. So George gave us the gift of storytelling being across lots of different genres, and that gives us a lot of opportunity to try things. What we've really enjoyed about the streaming space is we've been able to experiment. It's harder to do that in the movie space. And now I think that that's why it feels so good to be able to move into a Mandalorian movie as we're coming off of three seasons of a very successful show. We've actually built an audience for that, and we gave the young audience an opportunity to enter Star Wars at a different place and not feel like you have to have seen everything. It can become their Star Wars. And that, I think is, is the fun storytelling challenge."
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