Kathleen Kennedy to be replaced by The Mandalorian’s Dave Filoni at Lucasfilm as Star Wars fans rejoice

Lucasfilm is having a shakeup in leadership as its longtime president Kathleen Kennedy is stepping down.

The production studio, which produces the Star Wars and Indiana Jones series, will now be co-run by Lucasfilm Executive Vice-President and Chief Creative Officer Dave Filoni, it was announced on Thursday.

Kennedy, 72, was reported by Puck News to have telegraphed her exit nearly a year earlier, but Filoni — who is best known for co-creating The Mandalorian — was only recently confirmed as her replacement.

However, Lucasfilm’s parent company, The Walt Disney Company, appears to be indicating that it will take two people to do the job Kennedy did over her 14-year tenure, as Filoni will share control of the studio with the current President and General Manager of Lucasfilm business, Lynwen Brennan.

The change in leadership follows years of fan complaints about Kennedy’s stewardship of Lucasfilm since George Lucas gave up control of the series he started, despite the massive financial success of the sequel trilogy and spinoff films that were released under her leadership.

The Daily Mail has reached out to Kennedy for comment. 

‘It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm,’ Kennedy said in a statement on Thursday. ‘Their creativity and dedication have been an inspiration, and I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together. I’m excited to continue developing films and television with both longtime collaborators and fresh voices who represent the future of storytelling.’

Disney CEO Bob Iger also paid tribute to the departing Kennedy in a statement.

‘When we acquired Lucasfilm more than a decade ago, we knew we were bringing into the Disney family not only one of the most beloved and enduring storytelling universes ever created, but also a team of extraordinary talent led by a visionary filmmaker – someone who had been handpicked by George Lucas himself, no less,’ he said. 

Disney Entertainment Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, whom Filoni and Brennan will report to, joined in the praise of Kennedy’s leadership and the new team leading Lucasfilm.

‘It has been a true privilege to spend more than a decade working alongside the extraordinary talent at Lucasfilm,’ he said in a statement. ‘Their creativity and dedication have been an inspiration, and I’m deeply proud of what we’ve accomplished together. I’m excited to continue developing films and television with both longtime collaborators and fresh voices who represent the future of storytelling.

Kennedy isn’t making a clean break from Lucasfilm, as she will stay on as a producer of the next two upcoming Star Wars films, The Mandalorian And Grogu, which will be released on May 22, and Star Wars: Starfighter, which isn’t expected until 2027, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Kennedy will also be free to produce projects outside of Lucasfilm.

Following her departure, Filoni’s title will now be president and chief creative officer, Lucasfilm, and in that role, he will oversee the creative direction of the studio.

Brennan will be responsible for the business affairs of the studio as co-president, Lucasfilm.

Disney isn’t breaking any new ground with its practice of separating creative and business aspects of its subsidiaries, the publication notes.

Disney previously took the same approach by having Pixar co-led by Pete Doctor and Jim Morris, while Walt Disney Animation was run by Jared Bush and Clark Spencer.

However, while Filoni was long seen as the logical successor to Kennedy, Brennan was a surprise choice to help lead Lucasfilm. 

Kennedy can boast of impressive successes under her leadership, including the choice to revive the Star Wars theatrical films with the sequel trilogy. 

She was responsible for selecting J. J. Abrams to direct 2015’s The Force Awakens, which went on to gross more than two billion dollars. 

Its sequel, 2017’s Rian Johnson–directed The Last Jedi, earned over $1.3 billion and is considered one of the greatest of all the Star Wars films by critics, and while 2019’s J. J. Abrams–led conclusion, The Rise Of Skywalker, was beset by mixed reviews and fan disgust, it still earned more than a billion dollars.

The spinoff film, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, was also a hit for the brand, but the prequel film Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018) was the first flop for the series.

That film illustrated what would become an unfortunate trend for Kennedy as Solo’s original directors, Phil Lord and Chris Miller, were fired from the project and replaced by Ron Howard.

In the wake of that film’s failure, multiple filmmakers — including Taika Waititi, Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins and Game Of Thrones producers David Benioff and D.B. Weiss — were announced as directors of future Star Wars films that died in the planning stage.  

Despite the divisive fan response to The Last Jedi, the film was a box office juggernaut, so it made sense that Lucasfilm would pursue future projects with director Rian Johnson.

However, Johnson confirmed that a planned spinoff trilogy was no longer in the works earlier this year.

Jurassic World director Colin Trevorrow was also brought into the fold to write and direct the sequel trilogy conclusion, The Rise Of Skywalker, but he eventually left the project, reportedly due to tensions with Kennedy.

Abrams ultimately returned to direct the conclusion to the trilogy he started, but the film — which Trevorrow retained a story credit on — was one of the worst-reviewed efforts from the franchise. 

Kennedy also had another flop on her hands with another major Lucasfilm property, the Indiana Jones franchise.

The series was revived in 2023 with Indiana Jones And The Dial of Destiny, but the film — which was the first that original director Steven Spielberg declined to return for — received mixed reviews and bombed at the box office.

Kennedy’s tenure also coincided with a rush of Star Wars shows on Disney+.

While The Mandalorian and Andor were both hits with viewers, other shows have received paltry reviews and disinterest from fans. 

Filoni came to Star Wars as a mentee to its original creator, George Lucas, who hired him to oversee the popular animated series The Clone Wars. He went on to co-create The Mandalorian and Ahsoka for Disney+. Although some fans expressed hope for a change in direction on social media, it’s unclear if Lucasfilm will make any abrupt changes, as Filoni has been working closely with Kennedy for years. 

On X, numerous fans gleefully reacted to the news that Kennedy was finally leaving Lucasfilm, as she has long been a punching bag for Star Wars’ most overzealous fans.

‘Oh wow maybe it’s true this time. I wonder if the test screenings of Mando & Grogu having anything to do with this,’ one user wrote.

Others shared celebration memes, including a scene from Wicked and a gif of Stone Cold Steve Austin chugging beers.

‘Why not 14 years ago?’ one fan wondered. 

Another user said the respected Kennedy, but described her leadership of Lucasfilm as ‘terrible.’

‘This change in leadership was necessary,’ they added, while expressing skepticism about her replacements.

Others worried that her replacement with two Lucasfilm leaders meant that the studio would focus on ‘safe’ films.

‘Too little, too late,’ another fan complained. 

But Kennedy wasn’t without her defenders, including one fan who wrote, ‘Most people, the real fans, respected Kathleen and what she did.’