Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is reportedly planning to step down on the finish of the yr, a seismic transfer with long-term implications for the way forward for the Star Wars movie and tv franchise.
Kennedy, 72, has overseen improvement and manufacturing of Star Wars since Disney’s acquisition of the franchise from George Lucas in 2012. Beneath her tenure, the studio launched the Star Wars “Skywalker Saga” sequel trilogy, two standalone movies in Rogue One and Solo, and 6 live-action Disney+ collection, together with The Mandalorian.
Information of Kennedy’s retirement was reported by Matt Belloni of Puck Information.
Kennedy’s departure will little question be welcome information to some Star Wars followers, who felt the Lucasfilm boss by no means charted a transparent course for the franchise. Regardless of attaining success on the field workplace, the Star Wars sequel trilogy acquired largely largely middling opinions from critics and followers alike, whereas the Alden Ehrenreich-led Solo movie proved to be a significant industrial disappointment and did not launch a Han Solo movie trilogy as Disney had envisioned. And aside from The Mandalorian, most of Star Wars’ Disney+ collection did not breakthrough with a mainstream viewers.
That’s additionally with out mentioning the quite a few Star Wars tasks introduced underneath Kennedy that have been later scrapped, reportedly as a result of inventive variations, comparable to Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron movie and Donald Glover’s Lando Calrissian film. Because of this, no new Star Wars movie has hit theaters since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.
As president of Lucasfilm, Kennedy additionally oversaw the event and launch of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Future, additionally a field workplace disappointment that did not rejuvenate the franchise as Disney had initially supposed.