Lucasfilm Officially Has New Leadership

As rumors for the last six or so months, it is now official. Kathleen Kennedy is no longer president of Lucasfilm. The long time producer was placed in charge of the company after Disney acquired it back in 2012 where she oversaw the relaunch of the franchise to theaters and TV with various levels of success. She will continue to work in the Star Wars universe as producer on current and probably future Star Wars films so to a small degree her previous subordinates will become her bosses. Those new bosses are Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan as co-presidents of Lucasfilm. 

Filoni will also keep his role as Chief Creative Officer. Filoni began working on Star Wars after directing 8 episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender. He began work at Lucasfilm in 2005 and from there helped create the animation side of the company with Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Rebels and more. He then helped launch live action Star Wars TV with The Mandalorian and Ahsoka and now moving into the movie side where he wrote and directed Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu which hits theaters on May 22, 2026.

Lynwen Brennan was vice-president of Lucasfilm, starting in ILM in 1999, rising through the ranks over the years to General Manager of Lucasfilm in 2015 which is more or less an executive vice president role. Her role in the new company is to handle all the business side work that it takes to manage a company so Filoni is free to work on the creative side.

Kathleen Kennedy Quitting Lucasfilm? (Updated)

An unverified rumor reported by Puck News and The Hollywood Reporter indicates that Kathleen Kennedy may end her 13 year run as leader of Lucasfilm. This has not been confirmed by any official sources nor has Kennedy spoken about it one way or the other. However their reps were contacted and no denials were issued so its definitely possible. 

Kennedy started with the company in 2012 while it was still owned by George Lucas and remained on board when Disney bought the company. She led the charge to relaunch the franchise with the final trilogy based on mostly on the work of JJ Abrams and continued to lead the division through a series of movies and television shows. 

Star Wars: Skeleton Crew just completing its run and Andor season 2 on the horizon. What it could mean for the franchise is hard to judge until a replacement is announced but likely whatever projects that are currently in the pipeline like The Mandalorian movie would remain so while projects still in their writing phase like half a dozen movie concepts would get a revisit. 

Update: In an interview with Deadline, Kennedy confirmed stepping down from Lucasfilm is part of future plans but provided no timeline. My guess there were plans to do it soon but the leak is causing a bump to later date.

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. 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. 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 the Mandalorian movie right now, and I’m also producing Shawn 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.

Entertainment Weekly Cover Story Reveals New Movie Images and Story Tidbits

In the cover article for this week's Entertainment Weekly, Star Wars: The Force Awakens director JJ Abrams and Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy discussed the film providing a few tidbits about the story and the characters along with a few images. The highlights are below. Click here for hi-def pictures and here for the full article.

Highlights:
- JJ Abrams decided to take on film when Kathleen Kennedy asked him "Who is Luke Skywalker?". Exploring that gave him chills.

- Did not reveal details of the post 30 years state of the world but said "Any good story has conflict. And if all were rosy 30-some years post-Jedi, we would be hard-pressed to find an interesting story to tell."

- The Empire has "morphed" into The First Order while a splinter group of the Rebels is called the Resistance with Poe Dameron (Oscar Issac) a fighter for them.

- Leia somehow has Anakin's original lightsaber that Obi Wan recovered (Revenge of the Sith) and gave to Luke (A New Hope) who lost it when he lost his hand against Darth Vader (Empire Strikes Back).

- The main bad guys is Vader super fan Kylo Ren (Adam Driver), The First Order General Hux (Domhnall Gleeson) and First Order Captain Phasma (Gwendoline Christie).

- Force Awakens writer Lawrence Kasdan was also intrigued by the Who is Luke Skywalker question and exploring that 30 year gap for Han Solo and Leia.

- Abrams verified that he is not directing Episode IX (VII is being directed by Rian Johnson (Looper).

- Kylo Ren's mask was designed to be a nod to Vader's helmet while the lightsaber was hand built by Ren.

- Much like "Darth" is a Sith title, so too is "Ren" for Knights of Ren. As for what the knights are, Abrams didn't elaborate.

- Kasdan said "...there’s never been a character quite like [Kylo Ren]. ...he's full of emotion."

Star Wars Anthology Focused on Young Han Solo In Works

In an Entertainment Weekly interview with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy, she confirmed that the second Star Wars Anthology film will focus on young Han Solo. The film is currently slated to be released on May 25, 201, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller (The LEGO Movie) and written by them along with Lawrence Kasdan (Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens) and Jon Kasdan. Currently no one has been cast and no details on the script but Kennedy did comment on a few things.

“There’s got to be a reason for [the stand-alone film] to be. And obviously the thing that Star Wars has always done so well is it doesn’t spend a lot of time [explaining] the stories that have come before. We don’t want to do that either. We don’t want to spend time going back and answering a lot of questions that, quite frankly, I don’t think people want answered.”

“I think the key here is that we are identifying an event or events in Han Solo’s life that gives you some idea of who he is and why he is the character we have all known to love."

“You can imagine, given who we’ve chosen to come in and direct, it should be very entertaining and funny. Han Solo is the character inside Star Wars that everybody knows has a wit and sense of humor. So that’s what this should be.”

“He’ll definitely be probably in the high teens, low 20s. We’re not introducing you to a 10-year-old Han Solo.”

As for the third Anthology film, that is still set for 2020. It is rumored to be about Boba Fett but Kennedy didn't confirm it anyway besides saying "..we're definitely still developing it."