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Who Will Run ‘Star Wars’ After Kathleen Kennedy Leaves? One of Hollywood’s Hottest — and Hardest — Jobs Opens Up
When Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy exits, who will take over the future of "Star Wars"?
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Who wants to call the shots on “Star Wars“?
No, really, because it’s kind of a thankless job. Of course, the intergalactic franchise is sacrosanct as a cultural institution, so the president of Lucasfilm — home to “Star Wars” and “Indiana Jones” — has one of the most prestigious posts in Hollywood.
But there’s also the reality they’ll be trolled on social media, parodied on “South Park” and criticized as too woke, too corporate, too slavishly devoted to George Lucas’s vision, or too willing to depart from Jedi canon.
And whoever gets the gig will be taking over at a low point in one of cinema’s biggest and most beloved franchises. Powers that be at the Disney-owned empire haven’t managed to get a film off the ground in six years (an eternity in today’s hyperactive culture). And the movies that have appeared in the decade-plus since Disney acquired Lucasfilm for $4 billion have been an exercise in diminishing returns – both financially and critically. Meanwhile, Disney+ spinoff television shows such as “The Acolyte” have been unceremoniously canceled after one season.
And yet, within hours of reports that Kathleen Kennedy will step down as president of Lucasfilm at the end of 2025, executives, creative talent and mega-producers were scrambling to get on the radar of Disney CEO Bob Iger. There are only so many of these jobs to be had, after all, and cracking the code on “Star Wars” could mean wielding a Kevin Feige-like influence in entertainment.
Popular on VarietyBut the successful applicant must offer a very particular set of skills. Foremost among them are deep relationships with artists and auteurs. That’s critical because under Kennedy, “Star Wars” has cycled through a wide range of A-list filmmakers – from Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who were fired from “Solo” mid-production, to Patty Jenkins and David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, whose movies were announced and then abandoned due to creative differences. That’s not to mention the litany of in-demand talent, like James Mangold, Taika Waititi, Donald Glover and Rian Johnson, whose space opera-centric spinoffs have yet to materialize. Kennedy has never had trouble attracting top directors. But keeping them employed has been an ongoing challenge. Even filmmakers whose movies actually debuted on the big screen, such as Gareth Edwards (“Rogue One”), saw the final product either reshot or dramatically refashioned in the editing process. Whoever gets tapped to direct a new “Star Wars” movie will want assurances that they won’t quickly join the ranks of the hired and fired.
Whoever gets the gig will have to offer an expansive vision for where to take the 48-year-old franchise – one that involves streaming, as well as a more consistent output of movies. There’s been an unintentional seven-year gap between 2019’s “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” the last feature film to hit screens, and the upcoming “The Mandalorian & Grogu,” a continuation of the Disney+ show that Lucasfilm plans to unveil theatrically in 2026.
Even Disney’s own Marvel Cinematic Universe, which is the most financially successful franchise in history, has struggled in recent years to maintain the same level of quality as it has moved beyond movies and into streaming. It’s easy for even the most exciting franchises to become oversaturated and grow stale.
“It’s one of the original, great legacy stories with as much potential as any of the great action and science fiction stories,” says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. “Has it been over-developed? Underdeveloped? At this point it’s sprawling and impossible to quantify. ‘Mandalorian and Grogu’ will be the first new theatrical release in a lifetime. Let’s see how it lands.”
So, the perfect candidate must offer more than a passive interest in all things Skywalker. Like Marvel’s boss Feige, they must be deeply versed in the mythology that Lucas established with 1977’s original “Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope” and then expanded over the course of sequels, graphic novels, videogames, theme park attractions, even the ill-fated “Holiday Special.” Because these movies and shows are costly to produce and important to Disney’s bottom line, it wouldn’t hurt if they had some business background, along with a certain artistic spark.
“It’s really hard to find people who have love and knowledge of ‘Star Wars’ and can run a big company. This is someone who needs to know how long a lightsaber is and how you charge it…” says Stephen Galloway, dean of Chapman University’s film school. “How many executives know the answer to those questions?”
Already, people around the entertainment business are offering up their predictions for who gets drafted to a galaxy far, far away. They include Jon Favreau, who oversees “The Mandalorian” on Disney+ and has experience helming blockbusters such as “Iron Man,” as well as Dave Filoni, Lucasfilm’s chief creative officer and executive producer of “The Book of Boba Fett” and “Skeleton Crew.” Others who could be on a wish list are “Harry Potter” producer David Heyman and Legendary Entertainment’s Mary Parent, who oversees the “Dune” and “Godzilla” franchises.
One top agent suggests Peter Rice, who was fired by former Disney CEO Bob Chapek in 2022 in a widely panned move, as a possible fit. “As an executive, he helped develop ‘X-Men’ and his relationships with the top actors, writer-directors,” says the agent. “His overall taste would re-energize everybody. Plus, he’s got great relationships at Disney.”
Some on the creative side might not want the headache that comes with being an executive. Favreau, for instance, makes far more money as a filmmaker for hire than he would as a corporate suit — and he doesn’t have to worry about keeping his Siths straight from his P&L. But would Lucasfilm take a page from DC and pair a creative type with a producer who speaks Wall Street-ese, à la James Gunn and Peter Safran. That thinking could make Favreau and Filoni the perfect combination.
“If you’re a creative person, do you want to be running a multi-billion-dollar company? It’s a different job,” Galloway says. “You’re further and further removed from creativity. Producers aren’t necessarily great executives.”
Though Kennedy has endured more than her fair share of criticism from fans and Hollywood over the many stalled projects and inconsistent films and shows, she will be hard to replace. When she took the job at Lucasfilm in 2012, she had already established herself as one of the most successful producers, having worked closely with the likes of Steven Spielberg and Robert Zemeckis on everything from “Jurassic Park” to “Lincoln.” After taking control of the company, she hired J.J. Abrams and triumphantly rebooted “Star Wars” with “The Force Awakens,” which remains the highest-grossing film in domestic box office history with $936 million (and $2 billion globally).
In doing so, Kennedy proved “Star Wars” was a sturdy enough fantasy adventure to survive the departure of its creator, George Lucas, who had handpicked her before leaving when Disney bought his company. Follow-ups in the trilogy, 2017’s “The Last Jedi” and “The Rise of Skywalker,” though still billion-dollar smashes, each made about half as much as “The Force Awakens” earned a few years earlier. In between, 2018’s spinoff “Solo: A Star Wars Story” became the first “Star Wars” movie to ever lose money in its theatrical run. From there, though, Kennedy managed to extend the franchise beyond movies and into streaming, correctly betting the Force would stay strong with “The Mandalorian” creator Favreau and a cute baby Yoda.
“To give her due, Kathleen had an extraordinarily difficult challenge: How do you take over George Lucas’s baby? She did it and stayed for 13 years,” says Galloway. “There are very few franchises that have survived that long.”
It makes sense that “Star Wars” might need a fresh perspective — and it isn’t alone. Almost all of Hollywood’s major franchises are currently facing growing pains. “Mission: Impossible” is wrapping up this summer with Tom Cruise’s eighth and final installment in the globe-trotting series, “The Final Reckoning.” Marvel is attempting to course-correct after a disappointing run following 2019’s “Avengers: Endgame.” Harry Potter, having tried and failed to make “Fantastic Beasts” a thing, is moving to Max with a new TV series about the famous boy wizard. And just last week, James Bond ceded creative control from the Broccoli family to Amazon MGM after struggling for years to chart a post-Daniel Craig course. That could give Star Wars an opening to fill the void for big blockbuster entertainment.
Doing so may require taking the kind of bold creative risks that entertainment conglomerates aren’t known for embracing. It’s worth remembering, however, that when Lucas first came up with his vision for a series of mystical warriors and dark lords, few in Hollywood thought it would work. He was turned down by many major studios and even after he managed to convince 20th Century Fox to back his film, he still worried it would flop. At a screening for fellow filmmakers that included Brian De Palma, writer Gloria Katz, and a smattering of Fox suits, the reaction was so negative that Lucas worried his career could be over.
But there was one important source of support in the audience – Lucas’ friend, Steven Spielberg. “George, it’s great. It’s gonna make $100 million,” Spielberg reportedly said.
It turned out Spielberg was off by several billion dollars.
Tatiana Siegel contributed to this report.
